#cellular degradation

• To self-devour — To destroy, consume, or eat oneself. In cell biology, it describes the structural process of autophagy through which a cell degrades its own damaged components to survive, whereas in a figurative or literary sense, it refers to a person consumed and ground internally by destructive passions, remorse, or hatred.
• Self-devouring — The act of self-devouring and its result; a physiological or pathological process through which an organism, cell, or tissue consumes or destroys its own constitutive structures. In cell biology, it represents the equivalent of the structural process of autophagy, whereas in a figurative or psychological sense, it describes intense inner turmoil caused by remorse, obsessions, or destructive moral suffering.