0 used to describe something that causes or makes worse the problem it was designed to avoid or solve: --
self-defeating regulations
1 done in a way that keeps you from succeeding: --
Such representations were self-defeating as prescriptive employee literature inadvertently contributed to the stereotypical perception it sought to refute.
The nationalist strategy is, from a civic patriotic point of view, not only morally objectionable but also tactically self-defeating.
However, as the experience of the past several decades illustrates, this policy will ultimately be self-defeating despite any short-term benets that the government may gain.
The discretional path toward economic reform is self-defeating for it fails at establishing the long-term frame that only legal institutions can provide.
If all can do it, it may be self-defeating: no one gains a height advantage if everyone increases in height.
Thus, this set of economic policies, taken alone, would be self-defeating.
He suggested that the intention to borrow, like that of inventing ritual, is self-defeating.
The patient is encouraged to talk about feelings, and to feel understood, rather than to discharge them in self-defeating ways.