self-mortification
Deliberate bodily denial
Self-mortification is the deliberate infliction of pain or discomfort on oneself, typically for religious or spiritual purposes.
Historically associated with practices like fasting, flagellation, or wearing hair shirts, the aim is to suppress bodily desires, atone for sins, or achieve spiritual discipline.
The term extends to any severe self-denial or punishment: His refusal to take a day off bordered on self-mortification.
Self-mortification for wrongdoing
- flagellationBeating with a whip
- fastingDeliberate food avoidance
- asceticismSevere self-denial practice
- hair shirtRough garment for self-mortification
monasticism · vigil · abstinence · pilgrimage · sackcloth · ashes · prostration · scourging
One who scourges for penance
- scourgeCause of mass suffering
- whipStrikes or aerates
- fastingDeliberate food avoidance
- starvationExtreme nutritional deprivation
sleep deprivation · kneeling · chains · wounds · pain · endurance · bloodletting · branding
Moral self-reproach
- shamePainful awareness of failure
- ruminationProlonged, repetitive thinking
- self-blameAttributing fault to oneself
- masochismPleasure derived from suffering
self-sabotage · deprivation · self-criticism · self-hatred · unworthiness · abasement · humiliation · self-flagellation
penance
Self-mortification for wrongdoing
- flagellationBeating with a whip
- fastingDeliberate food avoidance
- asceticismSevere self-denial practice
hair shirt · monasticism · vigil · abstinence · pilgrimage · sackcloth · ashes · prostration · scourging · discipline
flagellant
One who scourges for penance
starvation · sleep deprivation · kneeling · chains · wounds · pain · endurance · bloodletting · branding · scarification
guilt
Moral self-reproach
- shamePainful awareness of failure
- ruminationProlonged, repetitive thinking
- self-blameAttributing fault to oneself
masochism · self-sabotage · deprivation · self-criticism · self-hatred · unworthiness · abasement · humiliation · self-flagellation · remorse
- Penanceconfession booth, act of contrition, contrition, penitent, public penance
- Penitentesself-flagellation, processions, prayer vigils, mayordomo
- offeringsburnt offering, altar offerings, sin offering, peace offering, oblations
self-mortificationself-indulgence
Excessive yielding to desires
hedonism · sensual pleasure · sybaritism · voluptuousness · epicureanism
self-mortificationhedonism
Pursuit of gratification
libertinism · worldliness · carnality · licentiousness · profligacy
self-mortificationself-indulgence
Excessive yielding to desires
self-care · self-gratification · self-compassion · self-love · self-acceptance
mortal, mortify, mortified, mortality, mortuary, mortifying, self-denial, mortification, mortifies