The word "self-trust" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to refer to one’s belief in one’s own abilities or judgment. For example: "Having self-trust and confidence in yourself is the key to success."
A passion for teaching self-trust drove Emerson through an astonishing public career, in which he became a kind of northern institution of one, rather than the icon of Transcendentalism.
Moreover, on McLeod's account, the self-trust necessary for autonomy is (epistemically) "justified self-trust": for instance, self-trust or self-distrust is not justified if agents overestimate or underestimate their competence in certain contexts (McLeod 2002, 104).
The attitudes of others affect agents' sense of competence, self-worth, and self-trust.
Conversely, providers can respect patient autonomy by attending to their power to influence patients' self-trust.
Carolyn McLeod focuses on medical contexts to elaborate how self-trust is necessary for autonomy.
Govier, Trudy, "Self-Trust, Autonomy, and Self-Esteem", Hypatia, 8(1), 99-120, Winter 1993.
Govier proposes that other self-regarding attitudes, such as self-respect and self-esteem, are integral components of self-trust.
These attitudes have the effect of eroding their self-trust, self-confidence, and sense of self-worth.
(For a related view, one that links self-trust with the "diachronic exercise of practical reason," see Hinchman 2003).
Both Trudy Govier (1993) and Carolyn McLeod (2002) argue that self-trust is a necessary condition of autonomy.
McLeod's examples illustrate the ways in which interpersonal conditions affect agents' abilities for self-trust and hence their autonomy.
