Alexithymia – Difficulty in Experiencing, Expressing, and Describing Emotional Responses

Let’s start this off by first stating that, for the record, feelings are hard. Feelings are confusing, and misleading, and at times unidentifiable. That being said, there is a name for this type of problem which some people have with emotions.

Alexithymia is a personality trait which is characterized by an inability to identify and or describe emotion in oneself. In people who experience alexithymia, there is a dysfunction with anything having to do with the emotions which they experience, or rather are unaware that they experience. This causes them to have problems with social situations including emotional awareness, social attachment, and interpersonal relationships.

However, this is not simply and a problem which the person only experiences within themselves but also with other people. For instance a person with alexithymia will also have trouble distinguishing and identifying emotions within other people. This includes facial expressions, tone, and other such emotional indicators.

Alexithymia has no clear cause as there are theories which support both genetic and environmental causes. As such we still do not know if people can be predisposed to develop alexithymia or if it is caused by an outside factor.

When it was first identified, it was believed that there was a disturbance to the right hemisphere of the brain which is responsible for emotions. This theory was studied in 1997; however, in 1985 Joyce McDougall  noted that when babies are born they do not have the ability to identify, organize, or express their emotions. As such she went on to explain that she believed that we are taught to identify and express emotions as we grow up. Specifically, we learn cues from our parents. As such if the parents are not good at identifying emotions, then their children will not learn how to do it as well.

However, what would McDougal have to say to the fact that it seems that alexithymia is one of the main symptoms which are present in Aspergers Sydrome? Does this mean that there is more of a biological aspect to this trait? Food for thought.

-Cassey

References

Alexithymia. (n.d.). In Dictionary.com. Retrieved September 23, 2014, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/alexithymia

Alexithymia. (n.d.). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved September 23, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexithymia

Bird, G., & Cook, R. (2013). Mixed emotions: the contribution of alexithymia to the emotional symptoms of autism. Translational Psychiatry. doi:10.1038/tp.2013.61

Fitzgerald, M., & Bellgrove, M. A. (2006). The overlap between alexithymia and Asperger’s syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(4), 573–576. doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0096-z

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Edited by: Zoe