Misplaced loyalty

Misplaced loyalty (or mistaken loyalty, misguided loyalty or misplaced trust) is loyalty placed in other persons or organisations where that loyalty is not acknowledged, is not respected, is betrayed, or is taken advantage of. It can also mean loyalty to a malignant or misguided cause.

Social psychology provides a partial explanation for the phenomenon in the way that the norm of social reciprocity motivates people to honor their agreements, and shows that people usually maintain an agreed deal even when it changes for the worse.E. R. Smith/D. M. Mackie, Social Psychology (2007) p. 390 Humanists point out that "[M]an inherits the capacity for loyalty, but not the use to which he shall put it [...] may unselfishly devote himself to what is petty or vile, as he may to what is generous and noble".Arthur James Balfour, Theism and Humanism (2000) p. 65

In the family

Part of the conventional therapeutic wisdom is 'that those of us who were unlucky enough to be raised by bad parents also get to be burdened as adults by their demands...we maintain a sense of misguided loyalty'.Marcia Sirota, "Misguided Loyalty Toward Hurtful Parents" Under the rubric - 'Misplaced Loyalty: The Codependency Factor'J. Middleton-Moz/L. Dwinnell, After the Tears (2010) p. 169 - the self-help movement would strongly challenge such loyalty: 'in either individual therapy or self-help groups, the goal is to seek out and replace our misguided loyalty and attachment to our failed parents with attachment to healthier peers'.David P Celaric, Leaving Home (2005) p. 137

Psychoanalysis would highlight the accompanying paradox that 'the child, it should be remembered, always defends the bad parent more ferociously than the good'.Adam Phillips, On Flirtation (London 1994) p. 111 The paradox may help account for what have been called 'trauma bonds...the misplaced loyalties found in exploitive cults, incest families, or hostage and kidnapping situations, or codependents who live with alcoholics, compulsive gamblers or sex addicts'.Patrick Carnes, The Betrayal Bond (1997) p. 29

Institutional

'Institutions develop powerful instruments of defence for their protection and perpetuation...develop misguided loyalty to committee and boards. To criticize forcibly rather than to cover up is to rock the boat'. Similarly, there are 'examples where misguided loyalty on the part of a business owner or manager has led to a decline in a business's performance'.Michael H. Shenkman, The Strategic Heart (1996) p. xiii

Sometimes, however, institutions are torn by conflicting codes of loyalty. Thus in the police, in-force loyalty, which 'has sometimes caused officers to lie and cheat on behalf of others...is now regarded as misplaced loyalty': in partial palliation, 'it must be understood that this "looking after one's mates" is a critical element of loyalty for those who face combat'.Roger F. Peters, Police under Pressure (2007) p. 17

In analytic controversy

The charge of misplaced loyalty is often used as a weapon in analytic disputes. Lacan for example criticised Ernest Kris for the way 'he accredits this interpretation to "ego psychology" à la Hartmann, whom he believed he was under some obligation to support'.Jacques Lacan, Ecrits: A Selection (London 1997) p. 238

Similarly, Neville Symington's 'criticism of Melanie Klein is that...she maintained the concept of the death instinct in order to remain loyal to Freud's instinct theory, but it only muddles her otherwise clear formulations'.Neville Symington, Narcissism: A New Theory (London 2003) p. 102

Historical

'The Spartans' behaviour at Thermopylae' might be seen as misplaced loyalty, or at least as 'an overriding commitment and loyalty to the good and the absolutely overriding dictates of the state'Paul Cartledge, Thermopylae (2007) p. 130 — as an instance when 'unreasoning obedience to a noble but narrow ideal received its logical reward'.E. B. Castle, Ancient Education and Today (1969) p. 29 It has been suggested that part of the military problems of the Confederacy came from the way the President, Jefferson Davis, 'had a propensity for meddling with commands and a strong but misplaced confidence in lesser men like...Braxton Bragg and Beauregard'.R. B. Nye/J. E. Morpurgo, A History of the United States Vol 2 (Penguin 1955) p. 478

Literary

"When my love swears that she is made of truth I do believe her, though I know she lies" Shakespeare's Sonnet 138.W. G. Ingram/T Redpath eds, Shakespeare's Sonnets (London 1978) p. 319 C. S. Lewis in his wartime novel That Hideous Strength had the following exchange: '"There's such a thing as loyalty", said Jane. McPhee...suddenly looked up with a hundred covenanters in his eyes. "There is, Ma'am", he said. "As you get older you will learn that it is a virtue too important to be lavished on individual personalities"'.C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength (London 2005 ) p. 262 On his last day in the C.I.D., John Rebus reflects guiltily that from his first day in the C.I.D. he had learnt that '"there's only two teams - us and them ... You covered for mates who'd had too many whiskies with lunch...or gone a bit too far on an arrest...prisoners falling downstairs or stumbling into walls...you covered for everybody on your team'.Ian Rankin, Exit Music (London 2007) p. 378

Misplaced loyalty

Bron en licentie