ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights what clinicians perceive as some of the most fundamental issues surrounding the psychological phenomenon of self-disgust, and offers some suggestions for those considering future research into the topic. The self-disgust represents a complex derivative of the disgust emotion that is distinct from shame, which too has both complex and more primitive variants. The emotions of disgust and anger may be more amenable to distinction when the subject is the physical body, rather than a more abstract topic, such as morality, or complex and volatile interpersonal relationships. The Questionnaire for the Assessment of Self-Disgust (QASD), which has been so far published exclusively in German, mirrors closely the structure of the Self-Disgust Scale (SDS), featuring two subscales assessing “Personal Disgust” and “Behavioural Disgust”. This scale has been used to assess differential levels of self-disgust in a mixed, German clinical sample, with some interesting findings.
