Popular psychology functions mainly to displace blame from evil actors onto prior causes

Evidence

Here is where I think that clinical psychology and psychiatry fit in. I want to tread carefully here. More accurately, here is where I think that ordinary people’s conceptualizations of psychology and psychiatry fit in. Although psychologists and psychiatrists sustain complex perspectives on these issues, I think that a frequent cultural use of the everyday equivalents of concepts in those fields is to provide alternate accounts of evil actions that attribute the act to other than an evil person. For instance, a culturally accepted form of the psychodynamic perspective, popularly thought to trace adult thought disorder to experiences inflicted on the person as a child, and inaccessible to current conscious control, removes the onus of evil from the individual who commits evil actions. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3887 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Determinism functions primarily as an excuse mechanism against anguish. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 254; Popularized psychology has replaced religious and institutional ritual in shaping human instinct; Instant post-9-11 blame explanations bypassed perpetrator psychology — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 10 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Popular psychology functions as licensed exceptions that remove the onus of evil #corroborates (0.95) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3887
• Fanatical ideological evil stems from normal psychology under extreme circumstances #complicates (0.82)
• Fanatical destruction arises from normal psychology under extreme circumstances, not inherent malice #complicates (0.80)
• Scapegoating stems from adaptive cognition, not psychopathology #complicates (0.76)