Self-Conscious Emotions

This chapter examines how self-conscious emotions intersect with identity development in adolescence to shape risk for anorexia nervosa (AN). Building on existing models, it proposes a refined framework that centers self-disgust – distinct from shame – as a primary driver of persistent food restriction, capable of overriding hunger. The model outlines developmental, personality, and sociocultural moderators (e.g., punishment sensitivity, rigidity, internalized body norms, interpersonal trauma), and explains avoidance, checking, and starvation-based vicious cycles. Implications include targeted assessment and interventions that directly reduce self-disgust (e.g., prolonged/VR body exposure, memory work, cognitive reorientation), alongside compassion, functionality-focused, and meaning-centered approaches.