Selflessness gone bad

"... the radical loss of self-interest, the cynical or bored indifference in the face of death or other personal catastrophes, the passionate inclination toward the most abstract notions as guides for life, the general contempt for even the most obvious rules of common sense." (The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, 1994; page 316). 

Here is selflessness gone bad. Here is the instance of the Ruler testing Avraham, and Avraham sleepwalking his way to sacrificing his son, and then only in the last moment the malakh YHWH intervening and training Avraham away from that cynical indifference to a robust embrace of life, with self-preservation at the top of the list.