Doing something that is giving and caring in theory, but is often too little, too late, or too stupid to really help. But you still feel like you helped, so you feel better about yourself.

Examples are giving pennies to charity, causing very painful breakups in near-dead relationships, and controlling someone's life to "make sure they don't hurt themselves".

The human phenomenon of doing illogical things to feel better about yourself is explored briefly in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's famous work Notes from the Underground. The protagonist is such a man, and he embodies arguments against some of the prevailing philosophies of the time in his actions, which are not only bad for the people around him, but bad for himself as well. He's aware of the effect his actions will have, yet he does them anyway--he plays with the tooth that hurts, so to speak, even though it hurts.

If you find yourself doing illogical things just to feel better about yourself, feel free to look inward and be comforted by the distinct humanness of your actions. People are not logical creatures--the constant fight of science against pseudoscience is but an embodiment of this. A person will not only do things which are bad for humanity, he or she will do things which are bad for him or herself, simply to prove that he or she is human and capable of doing so.