self-justification (self-pity 2)

a little additional epiphany as to why people resort to the 'you don't understand me' justification for doing what they do (this was triggered by a wanna-be artist defending her theme of morbidity by saying 'people don't have to understand it' and 'it's my way of expressing something different') : so long as there is a perceived lowest common denominator of thought or sentiment about an issue (in this case, an assumed mainstream taste in art), the attempt to do something perceived as contrary to the prevailing ethos supplies both the self-justification and individualism impulse, as well as the identity and definition-by-alienation need.

of course lowest common thought begets lowest individual response.