Learn English – word for someone who is their own villain

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Someone who fills the role of the villain for themselves? Or at least a phrase/way to describe this?

E.g. By using the word 'penanced', meaning that she has inflicted a punishment on herself, the poet is suggesting that she is a XXX, filling the role of both the hero and the villain

Thank you

Best Answer

This could be described as self sabotaging behavior

Psychology Today describes this as:

What is Self-Sabotage?

Behavior is said to be self-sabotaging when it creates problems and interferes with long-standing goals. The most common self-sabotaging behaviors are procrastination, self-medication with drugs or alcohol, comfort eating, and forms of self-injury such as cutting. These acts may seem helpful in the moment, but they ultimately undermine us, especially when we engage in them repeatedly.

The person therefor might be described as a self-saboteur

More colloquially she might be described as her own worst enemy

He must fall either by his enemies, or by himself, who indeed is his own worst enemy.1

1 The life and letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero by By Marcus Tullius Cicero, William Heberden, Melmoth, Middleton; London, Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, MDCCCXLVIII

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