Political motives and unconscious self-deception can coexist without either invalidating the other

Evidence

Ironically what makes such reactionary positions tenable is the very radicalness of psychoanalytic skepticism vis a vis ideology. In Civilisation and its Discontents Freud suggests that the way to psychic hell may well be paved with good intentions. In what may today be read as a pioneering study of the culture of complaint, he suggests that behind charitable deeds and fine - or politically correct - words we may frequently discern far less creditable motivations at work. Political activism always has its “other scene.” He does not, however, say that this is always or automatically the case, or even where it is, that the effect is to invalidate the “do gooding.” Black militants who make knee-jerk denunciations of racism when something goes wrong in their own private lives may be using political rhetoric as means to evade their existential responsibility, or they may be giving an entirely accurate and dispassionate account of some process of discrimination they have personally suffered. And conceivably they may be doing both! There is no law of automatic inversion whereby what is consciously affirmed is inevitably unconsciously denied. It is always a matter of investigation, not a priori judgment, and the answer - the unconscious meaning of the situation - will vary from case to case. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1260

Categorization

• DEFINE: Offers a sharp corrective against a vault-wide tendency to treat any attribution of unconscious motivation as automatically invalidating a political claim — the very logic critics of ‘psychologizing’ racism accusations deploy.
• SEED: Essay angle: ‘anti-psychologism as thought-terminating cliche’ — when flattening all motive analysis into dismissal mirrors the very pathologizing it criticizes.
• XREF: Qualifies vault-wide claims that dominant institutions pathologize racism accusers, by noting the same debunking move can wrongly dismiss genuine unconscious dynamics. — connects to: Genuine self-deception and intentional social deception are distinct phenomena; Imperial dispositions may be the template for modern political self-deception — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1412; Sincerity can be an active ingredient of self-deception rather than its opposite — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1405 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Sincerity can be an active ingredient of self-deception rather than its opposite #corroborates (0.82) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1405
• Genuine self-deception and intentional social deception are distinct phenomena #expands (0.78)
• Claiming total self-honesty itself signals defensive self-deception #corroborates (0.75) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1813
• Imperial dispositions may be the template for modern political self-deception #qualifies (0.72) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1412
• Self-serving bias and compartmentalization of contradictions are universal, not authoritarian-specific #complicates (0.72) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1444