Pronunciation: /rɪˈɡrɛsɪv ɪnˈsænɪti ˈsɪndroʊm/
noun
1. A psychological and metaphysical condition observed in individuals who experience cyclical temporal regression, typically triggered by death, and return to a fixed point in their personal timeline. The syndrome describes the progressive erosion of sanity and the conscious adoption of a fractured psyche as a direct result of the accumulated trauma from repeated deaths and lived experiences across multiple timelines.
2. The defining state where the subject ceases to perceive regression as a failure or a punishment, and instead weaponizes the process. By deliberately absorbing the existential dissonance and psychic feedback of their fractured existence, the subject transforms latent insanity into a source of power, strategic insight, or unconventional ability, viewing each life and death as an experimental data point for achieving a superordinate goal.
noun
1. A psychological and metaphysical condition observed in individuals who experience cyclical temporal regression, typically triggered by death, and return to a fixed point in their personal timeline. The syndrome describes the progressive erosion of sanity and the conscious adoption of a fractured psyche as a direct result of the accumulated trauma from repeated deaths and lived experiences across multiple timelines.
2. The defining state where the subject ceases to perceive regression as a failure or a punishment, and instead weaponizes the process. By deliberately absorbing the existential dissonance and psychic feedback of their fractured existence, the subject transforms latent insanity into a source of power, strategic insight, or unconventional ability, viewing each life and death as an experimental data point for achieving a superordinate goal.
Characters like 'Kim Gong-Ja' from the manhwa "SSS Class Suicide Hunter" and 'Encrid' from the manhwa "Eternally Regressing Knight" use their eternal regression curse as a tool and a method to get stronger, meanwhile also obtaining the insanity of being able to tolerate pain and death tens and even hundreds of times without giving up. This is the definition of the 'Regressive Insanity Syndrome'
by relentlessR3 October 19, 2025
