| | Ed, ...these altruists are motivated in an egoistic way, but in one that is perverted (i.e., motivated to achieve pride and personal superiority)." With 'motivation' you step into the world of psychology. Pride is a good thing when it is real... and the questions are whether it is deserved, and if it is honest.
If a person has low self-esteem and feels inferior, then they might develop a defensive mechanism to keep feelings of shame or anxiety at bay. And the defense chosen might be an artificial facade of superiority gained by making moral attacks on another.
Attacking one's child as somehow not enough while making claims of great sacrifice and martyrdom certainly fit that description. That pride would be dishonest because it comes from a false sense of superiority and because it isn't a natural psychological reward for real achievement, but a defense designed to avoid an aspect of reality (whatever subconscious conclusions underlie the low self-esteem and poor practices of consciousness.)
Even as a defense it can't work to eliminate the low self-esteem and its effects. It only paints the person further into a psychological corner where they are farther from seeing reality and have far fewer options available to deal with interpersonal relationships. It blocks real avenues of pride, and blocks real avenues towards joy in the interpersonal relationships. It is a case of person committing fraud on themselves - selling themselves a technique for getting relief from feelings of inadequacy or being unlovable or unworthy... a technique that won't do those things at all, and will actually make things worse.
They are likely to end up with a shallow, brittle, bitter view of their life, and their kids, and their past. That view will define boundaries for their future moves - limiting their options, coloring their views, blinding them to aspects of reality, setting them up to only see the worst, expect the worse, and get the worse.
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