Public and private self-consciousness as specific psychopathological features

Public self-consciousness (PUBSC) and private self-consciousness (PRISC) re present aspects of dispositional self-directed attention. The aim of the pr esent study was to investigate whether four clinical groups, namely patient s with a diagnosis of social phobia, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive d isorder or bulimia nervosa, and normal controls differentiated on the basis of their PUBSC and PRISC scores. Results indicated that both PUBSC and PRI SC are extremely elevated in patients with social phobia. Patients with pan ic disorder and patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder score somewhere between social phobics and normal controls on PUBSC and PRISC scales. Buli mics had significantly higher PUBSC values than both controls and patients with panic disorder, but had lower values than social phobics. Compared to normal controls, bulimics showed no elevated PRISC scores. In addition, con trary to the other groups, PUBSC and PRISC seem to be unrelated in bulimics . Thus, PUBSC and PRISC appear to be specific psychopathological features f or German females when comparing groups with different mental disorders and normal controls. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.