Self-consciousness is an acute sense of self-awareness. It is a preoccupation with oneself, as opposed to the philosophical state of self-awareness, which is the awareness that one exists as an individual being; although some writers use both terms interchangeably or synonymously. An unpleasant feeling of self-consciousness may occur when one real...[Vedanta] Self-consciousness in the Upanishads is not the first-person indexical self-awareness or the self-awareness which is self-reference without identification, and also not the self-consciousness which as a kind of desire is satisfied by another self-consciousness. It is Self-realisation; the realisation of the Self consisting of cons...
• (n.) The quality or state of being self-conscious.
Awareness of one`s distinct social identity, as a person separate from others. Human beings are not born with self-consciousness but acquire an awareness of self as a result of early socialization. The learning of language is of vital importance to the processes by which the child learns to become a self-conscious being.
The habitual tendency to engage in self-awareness.
Self`-con'scious·ness noun The quality or state of being self-conscious. 
[n] - embarrassment deriving from the feeling that others are critically aware of you 2. [n] - self-awareness plus the additional realization that others are similarly aware of you
uneasiness 1 uncomfortableness noun embarrassment deriving from the feeling that others are critically aware of you
The knowledge by the self of itself. The term is usually restricted to empirical self-consciousness. (See Empirical Ego) -- L.W.