Reversed psychology: why people choose to self-destruct

Psychologically reversed people feel uncomfortable when an important dimension of their life such as work, love or financial situation is going well. They therefore eventually do something that relieves this discomfort with happiness. Self-sabotage enables them to fulfill a subconscious expectation that they will be miserable. Even for folks who are mostly happy and successful in life, if they are psychologically reversed a return to an underlying state of unhappiness or bad luck in some uncanny way feels to them more normal. - "Bad Luck, Bad Choices or Psychological Reversal?" by Susan Heitler, Ph.D., Psychology Today

Could explain why modern people are so exuberantly self-destructive. Or why whole successful ethnic groups decide to suicide once they finally achieve their aims.