“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” These words, from 19th-century philosopher George Santayana (famously paraphrased by British prime minister Winston Churchill in reference to history), provide an entryway to understanding a confounding aspect of human behaviour, the tendency to seek out, re-create, and relive painful past experiences.

Also referred to as repetitive compulsion, compulsion to repeat, or trauma reenactment, repetition compulsion was described by Freud in Beyond the Pleasure Principle as an unconscious tendency of individuals to re-create and repeat painful traumatic experiences from early childhood. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include experiencing or witnessing physical, emotional, and/or sexual abuse, neglect, family breakdown, and

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