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Show Chapter VII. Pseudorationality 316 Second, the in-tandem operation of these mechanisms. When one's dogmatic investment in one's theory of oneself is very deep, i.e. when that theory serves and satisfies very deep desires for moral rectitude and the satisfactions that a sense of moral rectitude brings, the threefold arsenal of pseudorationality offers a powerful resource for defending this theory against the transgressive incursions of one's own moral imperfection. Whereas rationalization stretches and twists the terms of the theory out of recognition in order to cover and thus validate the delinquent behavior, dissociation aids this by negating contradictory characterizations of it that would threaten this reinterpretation; and denial, backed by force and political authority if necessary, eliminates them from consideration. Conjointly these three mechanisms serve to protect and preserve the theory against the pressure of doubt, re-evaluation, self-interrogation and revision, when the psychological and political price of such destabilizing self-criticism would be too high. However, I think Keynes in this narrative is uncharitable to Wilson in suggesting that it was merely the latter's self-respect and belief in himself he felt compelled to protect. The proclamation and publication of Wilson's Fourteen Points had raised exaggerated international expectations of him and of American participation in the Paris Peace Treaty negotiations that would have been impossible to fulfill under the best of circumstances. The cost of raising such expectations and then dashing them is not simply a loss of selfrespect and self-confidence, but rather the crushingly humiliating knowledge that one has failed one's fellow man, disappointed expectations that one knowingly encouraged them to have. Thus pseudorationality defends one against self-recognition of the fumbling moral arrogance that invites dishonesty with others. It is this basic self-deception that lies at the foundation of pseudorationality to which I turn next. © Adrian Piper Research Archive Foundation Berlin |
