When Sisyphus Falls: Creation Through Destruction in the Search for Identity

This paper introduces The Sisyphus Complex (TSC), a novel framework for understanding patterns of identity fragility, relational instability, and covert harm propagation. TSC is defined by the compulsive creation of externalized identity scaffolding, strategic role adoption, and triangulated relational matrices that sustain a fragmented sense of self. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, trauma literature, quantum metaphors, and systems thinking, the work positions TSC as a distinct clinical and theoretical construct that does not fit neatly within existing personality disorder models. Central concepts include the frightened child as an unseen system architect, the interplay of tactical victimhood and symbiocidal dynamics, and the gradual accumulation of ambiguous harm across relational contexts. The dissertation emphasizes the disorienting dualities generated through relational superposition, wherein both self and other are maintained in suspended interpretive states, and explores the countertransference challenges these dynamics pose to therapists. Finally, it outlines directions for future research in forensic psychology, sociological systems, digital identity, and clinical assessment, establishing TSC as an emergent phenomenon requiring nuanced interdisciplinary inquiry.