"NARCISSISM MORALIZED" is C. Fred Alford's provocative term to explain why whistleblowers do what they do. "Whistleblowers blow the whistle because they dread living with the corrupted self more than they dread living in isolation from others," he writes in Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational Power, his 10th book of moral psychology. With this concept, Alford sets aside the pathological definition of narcissism—which includes as its well-known features exploitation of others and lack of empathy—and instead puts whistleblowers in such exalted company as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Moral narcissists strive to live up to their "ego ideal," as Freud would have it, rather than lower the ideal and say to themselves, consciously or not, "Well, I'm just going to go to work every day and go along," Alford argues. He came to the notion after sitting in on a whistleblower support group for a year, eavesdropping at a retreat for stressed-out whistleblowers, and interviewing 24 more in depth. The only force strong enough to make whistleblowers blow and keep blowing, despite mounting psychological and financial costs (most studies show about two-thirds lose their jobs and many never return to their original fields), is narcissistic rage. "Look what you've done to my moral purity!" the whistleblower's heart cries.
"Whistleblowers are not necessarily people I'd want to have a beer with," says Alford, a University of Maryland political scientist and the author of a fascinating book that applies psychological theory to whistleblowers' experiences. "There is almost by definition something a little unsocialized about the true believer, as I like to call them." Or even, in our go-along-to-get-along society, something a little scary. As one whistleblower told Alford, we're all afraid of people who feel compelled to "commit the truth."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
On 1/15/10 the DOJ asked me what motivated me to write a blog.
Doesn't this post from November 2009 give the answer?
They admitted they were reading my blog since 11/09.
Mystery!
Prof. C. Fred Alford, Univ. MD
Phone: 301.405.4169
Office: 1151 Tydings Hall
Email: falford at gvpt•umd•edu
Curriculum Vitae
Classical political theory and psychoanalytic approaches to politics are my first loves. If pressed to describe what I do in a couple of words, I would call it by the old fashioned name of moral psychology. I'm interested in the psychological roots of morality, but I'm very careful not to reduce morality to psychology, or to imagine that psychology can form the basis of morality. Research in this area has also led me to investigate issues within the realm of international human rights.
Currently, I am fascinated by the experience of affliction. The Book of Job, The memoirs of Primo Levi, and the testimonies of Holocaust survivors are leading sources. Among the questions I ask is whether the experience of affliction even makes sense in the contemporary world. As guide to my study I follow a line from Simone Weil. "The great mystery of human life is not suffering but affliction."
I been interviewed over a hundred times by the national media on whistleblowing, and corporate ethics generally. His remarks and interviews have appeared in The New York Times, NBC, NPR, Nightly Business Report, Mother Jones, as well as dozens of other newspapers, magazines, and radio and television stations
Post a Comment