对心理利己主义的第一个也是最明显的反对意见是，有许多明显的例子表明人们在利他主义或无私地行为，将他人的利益放在他们自己的利益之上。刚刚给出的例子说明了这个想法。但正如已经指出的那样，心理自我主义者认为他们可以解释这种行为。但他们可以吗？批评者认为他们的理论依赖于对人类动机的错误描述。例如，建议那些捐赠给慈善机构，捐献血液或帮助有需要的人的人，都是出于避免感到内疚或渴望享受圣洁感的愿望。在某些情况下这可能是正确的，但肯定在许多情况下并非如此。事实上，我没有感到内疚或在做出某种行为后感到有道德可能是真的。但这通常只是我行动的副作用。我并不一定是为了获得这些感受。心理自我主义者认为，在底层，我们都是相当自私的。即使是我们形容为无私的人，也是为了自己的利益而做的事情。他们说，那些以表面价值采取无私行为的人是天真的或肤浅的。然而，与此相反，批评者可以争辩说，我们在自私和无私行为（和人）之间的区别是重要的。自私行为是指牺牲别人的利益的行为：例如：我贪婪地抓住了最后一块蛋糕。一种无私的行为是我将另一个人的利益置于我自己之上的行为：例如：我给他们最后一块蛋糕，即使我自己喜欢它。也许我这样做是因为我渴望帮助或取悦他人。从某种意义上说，在某种意义上，我可以被描述为满足我的欲望，即使我无私地行事。但这正是一个无私的人：即关心他人的人，他们想要帮助他们。我满足于帮助别人的愿望这一事实并不能否认我无私地行事。反之。这正是无私的人所拥有的那种欲望。
新加坡管理大学心理学Essay代写：什么是心理自我主义
The first and most obvious objection to psychological egoism is that there are lots of clear examples of people behaving altruistically or selflessly, putting the interests of others before their own. The examples just given illustrate this idea. But as already noted, the psychological egoists think they can explain actions of this kind. But can they? Critics argue that their theory rests on a false account of human motivation. Take , for instance, the suggestion that people who give to charity, or who donate blood, or who help people in need, are motivated by either a desire to avoid feeling guilty or by a desire to enjoy feeling saintly. This may be true in some cases, but surely it simply isn’t true in many. The fact that I don’t feel guilty or do feel virtuous after performing a certain action may be true. But this is often just a side effect of my action. I didn’t necessarily do it in order to get these feelings. Psychological egoists suggest that we are all, at bottom, quite selfish. Even people who we describe as unselfish are really doing what they do for their own benefit. Those who take unselfish actions at face value, they say, are naïve or superficial. Against this, though, the critic can argue that the distinction we all make between selfish and unselfish actions (and people) is an important one. A selfish action is one that sacrifices someone else’s interests to my own: e.g. I greedily grab the last slice of cake. An unselfish action is one where I place another person’s interests above my own: e.g. I offer them the last piece of cake, even though I’d like it myself. Perhaps it is true that I do this because I have a desire to help or please others. In that sense, I could be described, in some sense, as satisfying my desires even when I act unselfishly. But this is exactly what an unselfish person is: namely, someone who cares about others, who wants to help them. The fact that I am satisfying a desire to help others is no reason to deny that I am acting selflessly. On the contrary. That’s exactly the sort of desire that unselfish people have.