G
Guest
·I havent seen anyone talk about Alexithymia on the forum...
I am very curious wether you feel if you fit into the catagory, as I know it fits me to perfection!!! What are your thoughts???
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Alexithymia is a manifestation of a deficit in emotional cognition. People with this problem are mostly unaware of their feelings, or don't know what they signify, and hence they rarely talk about their emotions or their emotional preferences; they operate in a very functional manner and rarely use imagination to focus their drives and motivations. Alexithymia refers to this distinctive cluster of characteristics.
Alexithymics have been described as human robots, or emotional illiterates. They score very low on measures of emotional intelligence and are likely to fare rather poorly in life, whatever their intellectual abilities. Their interpersonal relationships are frequently hampered by poor emotional communication. Many also suffer chronic medical problems, particularly psychosomatic or somatoform illnesses.
Although alexithymia is a clinical construct, it does not constitute a diagnostic illness in its own right. It is a clinical feature associated with a range of medical diagnoses, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Anorexia Nervosa or Asperger's Syndrome. There is, however, a strong case for construing it (or more properly the associated psychological deficit) as an independent condition or cognitive-affective dysfunction. Though it can have a profoundly disruptive effect on an individual's life and prospects, it is arguably inappropriate to call it a disorder or disability.
Also:
What is alexithymia?
In brief, alexithymia is the inability to talk about feelings due to a lack of emotional awareness. Alexithymics are typically unable to identify, understand or describe their own emotions, and the construct of alexithymia refers to some of the chief manifestations of this deficit in emotional functioning. (You can read some more precise definitions here.)
The term was coined from the Greek a- (prefix meaning "lack"), lexis ("word") and thymos ("feelings"), and hence can be read literally as "a lack of words for feelings". Note that alexithymia does not mean "a lack of words for feelings". Its meaning is determined by its definition and is not constructed from the literal senses of its etymological roots. The term means the syndrome described in the literature and not simply an absence of emotion words.
Two conceptions of alexithymia
There are two closely related conceptions of alexithymia in the academic literature?psychiatric (in medical literature) and psychometric (in psychological literature), though the distinction is rarely acknowledged.
The psychiatric concept emerged in the context of psychosomatic medicine. Alexithymia in this sense refers to a set of characteristics, similar to la pens?e op?ratoire, observed in a subset of psychosomatic patients. The classification is applied to people who exhibit the key symptoms of a deficiency in emotional cognition, as determined by a standard examination protocol, such as the Beth Israel Questionnaire. Alexithymia may be used to describe the behavioural profile of patients with a number of different syndromes, but it does not constitute a clinical disorder in its own right. It is a general clinical descriptor, like akinesia (lack of movement), aboulia (lack of will) or apnoea (breathing difficulties).
Alexithymia has a non-medical range of application in psychometric psychology. Here it is principally conceived as a dimensional personality trait. It implies a continuous range of abilities and although people who have an alexithymia rating above a certain arbitrary value can be classified as alexithymic, the term is not necessarily indicative of a clinically significant impairment. The difference in definition is subtle but important.
Most theoretical discussions of alexithymia seem to imply the psychiatric model, but most of the tests adopt the psychometric model. The confusion is often apparent within single publications. For example, many studies identify an assumption from the psychiatric literature, then examine the corresponding hypothesis by selecting non-clinical subjects with the psychometric questionnaire and conclude that the hypothesis is not supported; however the psychometric test has implicitly redefined the construct and widened its range of reference. Accordingly, it is questionable whether the results of many empirical studies have a direct bearing on the psychiatric conception of alexithymia.
I am very curious wether you feel if you fit into the catagory, as I know it fits me to perfection!!! What are your thoughts???
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alexithymia is a manifestation of a deficit in emotional cognition. People with this problem are mostly unaware of their feelings, or don't know what they signify, and hence they rarely talk about their emotions or their emotional preferences; they operate in a very functional manner and rarely use imagination to focus their drives and motivations. Alexithymia refers to this distinctive cluster of characteristics.
Alexithymics have been described as human robots, or emotional illiterates. They score very low on measures of emotional intelligence and are likely to fare rather poorly in life, whatever their intellectual abilities. Their interpersonal relationships are frequently hampered by poor emotional communication. Many also suffer chronic medical problems, particularly psychosomatic or somatoform illnesses.
Although alexithymia is a clinical construct, it does not constitute a diagnostic illness in its own right. It is a clinical feature associated with a range of medical diagnoses, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Anorexia Nervosa or Asperger's Syndrome. There is, however, a strong case for construing it (or more properly the associated psychological deficit) as an independent condition or cognitive-affective dysfunction. Though it can have a profoundly disruptive effect on an individual's life and prospects, it is arguably inappropriate to call it a disorder or disability.
Also:
What is alexithymia?
In brief, alexithymia is the inability to talk about feelings due to a lack of emotional awareness. Alexithymics are typically unable to identify, understand or describe their own emotions, and the construct of alexithymia refers to some of the chief manifestations of this deficit in emotional functioning. (You can read some more precise definitions here.)
The term was coined from the Greek a- (prefix meaning "lack"), lexis ("word") and thymos ("feelings"), and hence can be read literally as "a lack of words for feelings". Note that alexithymia does not mean "a lack of words for feelings". Its meaning is determined by its definition and is not constructed from the literal senses of its etymological roots. The term means the syndrome described in the literature and not simply an absence of emotion words.
Two conceptions of alexithymia
There are two closely related conceptions of alexithymia in the academic literature?psychiatric (in medical literature) and psychometric (in psychological literature), though the distinction is rarely acknowledged.
The psychiatric concept emerged in the context of psychosomatic medicine. Alexithymia in this sense refers to a set of characteristics, similar to la pens?e op?ratoire, observed in a subset of psychosomatic patients. The classification is applied to people who exhibit the key symptoms of a deficiency in emotional cognition, as determined by a standard examination protocol, such as the Beth Israel Questionnaire. Alexithymia may be used to describe the behavioural profile of patients with a number of different syndromes, but it does not constitute a clinical disorder in its own right. It is a general clinical descriptor, like akinesia (lack of movement), aboulia (lack of will) or apnoea (breathing difficulties).
Alexithymia has a non-medical range of application in psychometric psychology. Here it is principally conceived as a dimensional personality trait. It implies a continuous range of abilities and although people who have an alexithymia rating above a certain arbitrary value can be classified as alexithymic, the term is not necessarily indicative of a clinically significant impairment. The difference in definition is subtle but important.
Most theoretical discussions of alexithymia seem to imply the psychiatric model, but most of the tests adopt the psychometric model. The confusion is often apparent within single publications. For example, many studies identify an assumption from the psychiatric literature, then examine the corresponding hypothesis by selecting non-clinical subjects with the psychometric questionnaire and conclude that the hypothesis is not supported; however the psychometric test has implicitly redefined the construct and widened its range of reference. Accordingly, it is questionable whether the results of many empirical studies have a direct bearing on the psychiatric conception of alexithymia.
i do think this is related to the dp though
