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The Psychological Effects of Frequent Resurrection

ShadeZ

Maester
I think you two are looking at different stages of response to abuse. What ShadeZ is talking about is what tends to happen initially. Everyone who's been abused has had some degree of at least one of those reactions. Sometimes it's so mild that it's not recognized by others: no one else sees the self hating thoughts, the depression, or the anxiety, but the survivor is experiencing it. And sometimes it's obvious.

Stopping the cycle and becoming kinder is what an abuse survivor does when they've been healing. That doesn't mean they haven't previously self harmed or hurt others, but they've moved past that. Or, maybe they still have a bad day now and then when they're really down on themself, but the kindness is what the people around them will see.
Correct. This is what three things I was referring to. The internal "psychological affects" not the acted on external.
 
But in the context of the OP's story, the character could be reacting in a slightly different way. He isn't being abused in quite the same sense that a victim of child abuse or spousal abuse would be, which is where that abuse survivor response stuff is drawn from. Arguably, being murdered is the ultimate abuse, but since he gets resurrected each time, it's a rather different story. When he realizes that he comes back to life every time he's killed, his reaction might be more along the lines of, "That asshat killed me again? Damn, this is getting old!"

He could be channeling any rage or misery he does feel into his mission to catch his killer. Maybe he's merciless there, but if he's that focused, he'd have no energy left for hurting himself, and no energy for hurting others (besides the killer, of course). Although he might conceivably become ruthless if he catches someone he suspects of aiding the killer, or who he suspects, if incorrectly, of being the killer. Perhaps in those cases, he'll try to torture information out of them.

If he vanquishes the killer in the end and then has to pick up the pieces and put his life back together, that's when a trauma response would be likely to kick in. Maybe he'll become a very bad guy, now that he no longer has hunting down the killer to distract him from hurting other people. Maybe he'll spiral into self harm. Or maybe he'll heal and become a productive member of society, but that wouldn't happen overnight.
 

Aldarion

Archmage
I've got an idea for an individual who discovers upon an early death and subsequent exhumation that he will "respawn" wherever he was buried if he isn't in his grave. Problem is, I don't know if this person would be well-adjusted after this. I'm shaping the character around the events foremost, so at least I don't have a fixed character in mind. I already envision that this person would be reclusive; I want it that he's exhumed a few years after for police investigation and so is a few years out of sync with the world. For the story, I want him to investigate his own murder by a serial killer/cannibal, politely the first time around, then no-Mr.-Nice-Guy the second before uncovering something even more unsettling about the killer; this would be his second and probably third death after discovering he comes back to life. Only problem is I don't know how unsettled such a person would be. Obviously we can't interview people who have died in very traumatic ways, but how would someone who has been affected in a severely traumatic way be able to handle confronting the stranger who directly harmed them multiple times?

Almost certainly not well-ajusted. I would imagine death to be quite a traumatic experience, and beyond that, being basically immortal would change the outlook on life.

As for confronting the criminal, there are various violent crimes (such as rape) that do not result in death, so maybe look them up?
 
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