#self-flagellation

• To self-flagellate — To whip or scourge oneself, as an act of ritual penance or physical mortification in certain religious practices. Figuratively and psychologically, it denotes extreme self-reproach, severe self-accusation, or excessive mental punishment over a mistake or guilt.
• Self-flagellation — The act of whipping or scourging oneself; ritual self-flagellation performed as a physical penance. Figuratively and psychologically, it denotes a destructive mental process of severe self-accusation, extreme self-reproach, and exaggerated emotional punishment driven by deep guilt.
• Self-flagellation — The act of self-flagellating and its result; a practice consisting of voluntarily inflicting whips or other severe bodily punishments on one's own body, specific to mystical penance rituals. Figuratively, it represents a psychological behavior marked by excessive self-criticism, obsessive guilt, and systematic self-deprecation following a failure.
• Self-flagellation — A neologistic morphological variant of the term 'autoflagelare'; the act of inflicting bodily punishments or lashes upon oneself as a mystical penance. In a modern conceptual sense, it describes the state or psychic process of moral self-torment, where an individual's consciousness induces continuous suffering through repeated reproaches, acting as a guilt-repressing mechanism.