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:
First, its solution to the existence of disagreements, namely giving precedence to the right to political participation, seems self-defeating.
Stability is not only hard to g rasp, its pursuit is self-defeating.
In social dilemmas, game-theoretic rationality is self-defeating, and experimental players frequently violate it.
Even from a normative point of view, rationality is self-defeating in social dilemmas.
Policy that has overlooked the complexity of ecology may prove to be self-defeating.
The force of the son's denial of his fortune serves as a compelling response to the self-defeating reanimations of dust and death.
This rip-off of the old feminist slogan that the personal is political is, however, totally self-defeating.
The patient is encouraged to talk about feelings, and to feel understood, rather than to discharge them in self-defeating ways.
