Aleksitimiy personality is a myth or reality: a concept in simple words, problems from a scientific point of view, features, reasons, how to treat?

This article describes such a disease as Alexitimia from a scientific point of view and simple words. Is such a pathology a myth or reality?

Content

There are diseases in the world that few have heard about. Especially this applies to the science of psychotherapy. A person understands that he has some problems, experiences, but he does not share about them with anyone. After all, what's the difference to people, what is there and who has a soul.

Read another article on our website about 12 mental tricks - psychological techniques that help improve their abilities. It gives useful tips, which you really should listen to.

Alexitimia is a pathology that has been known since the 50s of the last century. Psychologists, psychotherapists, neurologists often make such a diagnosis, but few people know what it is. This is described below from a scientific point of view, as well as in a simple language. Read further.

What syllable is stressed in the word "Alexitimiy"?

The new word is always incomprehensible for perception, and if you have just begun to teach this section in the science of psychiatry or psychology, it is important to learn how to first pronounce the term correctly. According to phonetics, stress in the word "Aleksitimiy" Put on the first syllable.

A model of feelings of the emotional Alexitimia of the personality - what is it in psychology in simple words: the concept of, which is called, definition

Model of feelings of emotional Alexitimia of the individual

Aleksitimiy personality, as a model and type of emotional disorder, is a functional specific feature of the nervous system. The concept in simple words: Alexithimia is a specific personal characteristic that is manifested by such states:

Difficulties in understanding
Difficulties in a verbal description of their own emotional unrest and emotions of others
Inability to carry out differentiation of bodily sensations
Refusal to distinguish between experiences, feelings

The ability to symbolize and fantasize is also reduced. Focusing, mainly, occurs on external aspects, at the same time, the corresponding attention is not paid to internal experiences. There is a tendency to utilitarian, concrete logical mental operation along with a deficiency of emotional response.

It is worth noting that the intelligence of the individual under Alexitimia is not violated, rather the opposite. Many individuals suffering from this disorder are characterized by a high level of mental development. The study of Alexitimia shows that approximately 20% People have manifestations of this pathology.

Problems of Aleksitimia of Personality from a scientific point of view

Summing up the review of literature about one of the possibly peculiar or disturbed personality shapes called Alexitimia, Brzezinsky wrote in his book (1995, p. 448) about the problem of Alexitimia from a scientific point of view):

“The design of Alexitimia has undergone a kind of evolution for 20 years From the original, not fully adopted concept, defined on the basis of experience and intuition. All this happened through the period of some hobby for the problem and great interest from the researchers, to the present in which it claims to be the role new paradigm of psychosomatic medicine. Despite many empirical data, the construction of Alexitimia requires further articulation and verification in new, more strict experimental conditions, before it can be fully recognized as a real scientific paradigm. ”

Responding to this statement, several years ago, one of the authors-scientists wrote the following comment (Jakubik, 1997, pp. 88-89):

“Although one can completely agree with the author’s reasonable doubts about the conceptualization of Alexitimia, it is difficult to recognize the appropriation of the concept of Alexitimia of the rank of scientific paradigm. Both Kuna (1968, 1985), and Popper (1992, 1999), Alexitimiy is neither a paradigm of psychiatry, nor psychosomatic medicine. It does not even comply with the conditions of scientific microparadigma ”, (Novakovskaya, 1975).

It remains only one of the hypothetical elements formulated in the microparadigm, which are descriptive theories of personality, like each of numerous forms of personal disorders, for example, hysterical, paranoid, schizoid, ancastic personality, etc.

Research of primary Alexitimia: the work of the authors, what books?

It seems appropriate to consider the motivational origins of the hypothetical concept of primary Alexitimia on the basis of scientists' research conducted. Based on the work of many authors of books, two main determinants can be distinguished:

Personal features are closely related to psychosomatic diseases:

Widespread among psychoanalysts, for almost half a century, received an opinion that such a connection still exists, and even that there are personal profiles or types specific to a particular disease (Dunbar, 1947, 1954).
Confirmation of this position should have been ensured by observations that psychosomatic patients are distinguished by personality characteristics from patients with neuropsychiatrics (cf. Mclean, 1949; Marty et al, 1963; Ruesh, 1975; Voght and Ernst, 1977; Von Rad Rad And Lolas, 1977).

The inefficiency of psychoanalysis as a method of treating psychosomatic diseases:

This was mentioned in their creations - Ammon, 1979; Horney, 1952; Krystal, 1983; Salminen et al, 1980; Taylor et al, 1997.
In addition, some ancestors of psychosomatic medicine, for example Deutsch (1953, 1959) and Wittkower (1965), expressed a unanimous opinion about the complete uselessness of psychoanalytic therapy in such patients.

Initially, the psychoanalytic direction was searched for by the division of personality into dynamic factors, including the so -called central conflict, for example, between the needs of dependence and independence. Later, expanding Freud's idea of \u200b\u200bthe connection between somatic disease and the changes in the ego, many psychoanalysts founded their ideas about psychosomatic disorders on the main assumptions of ego psychology. They made a special emphasis on disorders in the bodily ego, i.e. on the image of your own body. A good example here is the views of the authors:

Schilder in 1924 - found a connection between psychosomatic diseases and disorders of the bodily scheme.
Federn in 1953 - the connection between psychosomatics and the sensation of the bodily ego.
The Shur in 1950 - combined in his theory together the so -called resematization of the functions of the ego and psychosomatics.

These and other authors were sure that the process of neutralization (deseches) of libidinal energy is associated with the progressive desoomatization of the behavior (emotions) of the individual. This is due to the fact that the deficiency of affective development of the ego leads to a violation or blocking of the processes of differentiation, verbalization and desoomatization of emotions (Crystal, 1988).

Aleksitimia: Causes

According to the theory of scientists, there are several causes of emotional anesthesia - Alexitimia. The theory of the formation of pathology is based on three factors that can act as a reason, both separately and in the aggregate:

Biological factor:

It all depends on the features of the development of the brain in the womb, as well as dysfunctions in the field of its right hemisphere.
It can be either innate and acquired, as a result of injury, surgical intervention, etc.
Identification is violated precisely because of the improper work and interaction of the two hemispheres.
Patients who, for example, carry surgery in the coroline body, lose their ability to imagine, fantasy and even cease to see dreams.

Psychological factor:

The connection with the mental trauma, which was received in childhood.
It is usually formed in a child with significant adults - parents, grandparents, if they also suffered from this disease.
Parental hyper -beep also plays a key role, a ban on emotions, the depreciation of children's feelings, intimidation (for example, you can’t say to the child that the world is dangerous, trusting, attachment brings pain). The emotions of the child become very scarce.
Even when the parent ceases to patronize, the habit still remains with the child and in adulthood.

Sociological factor:

It is worth noting that detachment in this direction often originates from the previous factor.
In addition, society, the cultural features of a particular people pushes to this behavior.
Such a factor is often observed in men.

Below even more interesting information from a scientific point of view. Read further.

Concept of Aleksitimia: What is?

An interesting position on the concept of pathology is occupied by Ammon (1979), which, according to its theory of structural deficiency "I" ("Emptiness I"), perceives psychosomatic diseases as a manifestation of impaired primary "I", determined - like the development of psychosis - the secondary, abnormal autonomy of the symbiotic complex. What is it?

In other words, this is an unresolved conflict from the pre -epipper period, formed as a result of a break in relations with the mother in the first years of the child’s life.
The psychosomatic symptoms of Alexitimia are similar to an attempt to replenish the structural deficiency (they fill in the ego-empty), protecting the weak ego from complete decay. This is a kind of protective mechanism.

A radical opponent of connecting specific forms of personal disorders with psychosomatic diseases was the founder of modern psychosomatic medicine Franz Gabriel Alexander (1950). This orthodox psychoanalyst, the successor of Freudian thought, suggested, among other things, the multi -reasoning genesis of psychosomatic diseases, expressed by the formula:

PS \u003d F (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, ... N)

Where:

PS - Psychosomatic disease
f - A sign of a function
a - Constitutional factor
b. - birth injury
c. -acquired weakness of some organ (for example, as a result of somatic diseases of infancy)
d. - The nature of parental care in infancy
e. - random physical traumatic experiences in early childhood
f - The emotional atmosphere in the family and the personal characteristics of parents and brothers and sisters
g - disappointment in oral needs
h - The conflict of drives
i - Physical injuries
j. - emotional experiences in interpersonal relationships
k. - a difficult situation (stress), which occurs immediately before the disease

As you can see, in this model there is no place for a specific person or a specific type of personality disorder.

Features of Alexitimia: Symptoms, signs according to the theory of Sifneos

In the light of literature on this subject, it seems that neither theoretical assumptions about various areas of psychoanalysis, nor ego psychology determined the emergence of the concept of Alexitimia. The main motive was to find the causes of the inefficiency of psychoanalytic therapy in psychosomatic diseases (cf. Nemiah and Sifneos, 1970; Nemiah et al., 1976).

Unfortunately, this was searched not in the weakness and unreliability of psychoanalytic theory, but in patients.
Instead of critical analysis and possible modification of their treatment methods - single, conditional sentences relate only to forms, and not the essence of communication with the patient (cf. Krystal, 1983; Salminen et al., 1980).
Psychoanalysts are acted by the well -known mechanism of self -confirmation of hypotheses, the final result of which is the concept of Alexitimia [GR. Alexythymia \u003d literally " no words for emotions "], introduced Sifneos (Sifneos, 1973).
Based on the descriptions contained in the published works, we can conclude that Alexitimiy is expressed primarily by generalized impaired emotional and partly cognitive processes.

It is important to study the symptoms and signs of pathology. The most commonly mentioned features of the alexitimic personality include:

Insufficient development of cognitive representation of emotions
Lack of ability to recognize various emotional states
Difficulties in feeling, experiencing, understanding, distinguishing and verbalization of one’s own feelings and emotions, as well as the inability to distinguish emotions from physiological changes in the body (for example, vegetative symptoms), which together means a decrease in self -awareness of emotional states.
Inability to modulate emotions with cognitive processes.
High intensity of negative emotions, low intensity of positive emotions.
The inability to focus on somatic sensations;
Removing mental stress only through the usual behavior (for example, overeating or hunger, alcohol abuse, drugs or psychoactive substances).
Lack of ability to dream and fantasize (weak imagination).
Too operational (specific) way of thinking.
Extrovert cognitive style.
A tendency to depressive mood and anxiety.
Avoiding difficult situations by activating various inadequate (“imaginary”) behaviors.
Inability to cope with stress in the absence of motivation to seek and use the support of others.

This chronic symptomatic syndrome, and not a specific configuration of the features of personality disorder, psychoanalysts are also called very eloquently “emotional illiteracy” (cf. Goulman, 1997). By the way, it is worth noting that the excellent director Bergman (1990) used the same term to describe, for example, some of his movie heroes.

On the other hand, in the non -cociacenalic approach of Taylor (1994) and his colleagues (Taylor et al., 1985,1991, 1997), Alexitimiy is considered as a violation of access to their own emotional processes in three ranges: mental representation of emotions, behavioral and physiological indicators.

The Torontic scale of Alexitimia - TAS Diagnostics of Alexitimia: what kind of test is this?

Attempts were made to adapt tat tests, projection rorshah tests, as well as Minnesotsky multidimensional personality inventory (MMPI) - In several versions - to study Alexitimia, which ended in failure. Serious methodological reservations are also expressed using specially compiled questionnaires, such as APRQ and Bipqor such scales as Shalin Sifneos scale (SSS) or Alex-40 Together with her abbreviated option - Amsterdam Aleksitimiy scale (AAS).

Only three ( TAS-26, TAS-Rand TAS-20) different options Toronto's scales Alexitimiy, developed by G. D. Taylor and his team (Parker et al., 1993a; Taylor et al., 1985, 1992), are considered quite reliable, accurate and standardized. In the original version of this self-reporting scale (TAS-26), the dimension of the Alexitimic personality is based on four factors:

I - difficulty in determining and differentiating feelings from bodily sensations
II - difficulties in the description and transfer of the experienced feelings
III - restrictions in the field of imagination
IV- Extrovert style of thinking

In the last, modified diagnostic version, or TAS-20 (see Bagby et al., 1992; Taylor et al., 1992), three factors are considered:

Difficulties in identifying feelings (TIU)
Difficulties in communicating feelings (Tou)
Steasive thinking style (OSM)

Attempts to adapt and psychometrically evaluate the ALEX-40 and TAS-26 scale in Poland (Maruszewski & Cigaa, 1998), however, do not inspire optimism.

The methodology of Alexitimia is a myth or reality: why is it questioned?

What is this pathology - a myth or reality? From the foregoing, it is clear that the disease really exists. But in a sense, the methodology of Alexitimia is questioned Ryzhinsky (1987, p. 257)who claims, in particular, that, among other things:

“Many authors express doubts about the existence of a clearly defined connection between a characteristic set of personal features and a psychosomatic disease. In particular, in recent years, the literature emphasizes the existence of peculiar complexes of psychological dispositions, which statistically significant tend to react more to psychosomatic diseases as a whole, without showing a tendency to specific diseases. ”

Perennial studies of Lazovsky and Pluzhka (see Lazovsky, 1978, 1982) do not confirm the connection between Alexitimia and psychosomatic diseases. At the same time, the authors object to the specificity of the relationship between a certain type of personality and a specific somatic disease. Read more:

They believe that the personality of a psychosomatic patient differs from the personality of healthy people.
They call neurosis "Psychosomatic syndrome"and they cannot be cured only specific settings and needs.
You can, of course, find in it sources of behavior described as the so -called "Personality of type a".

True, in it one could find sources of behavior described as the so -called personality of type A, since it includes such individual features:

Permanent protective attitude
Positive self -esteem
Self confidence
Increased self -control
Strong need for achievements
Domination
Competition
Activity
Belonging
Persistence
Understanding oneself and the surrounding world
Caring for others

But researchers are firmly convinced that the personality of people suffering from individual psychosomatic diseases is more quantitative than qualitatively, from the point of view of the symptoms that make up the psychosomatic syndrome.

Secondary Alexitomy in people with other diseases

From an almost exponential increase in the number of publications, it can be assumed that Alexitomy at some point-especially in the 1980s-became a slogan for many researchers. The so -called "appeared" secondary Alexitomy»The occurrence of this disease began to be observed sequentially with such conditions and pathologies:

Bronchial asthma
Cardiac ischemia
Hypertension
Stomach ulcer
Rheumatic disease
Depression
Paroxysmal anxiety
Ancastic syndromes
Reactions to stress
Alcoholism
Addiction
Disorders of food behavior
Bulimia and others.

E great interest in the problem of emotional intelligence undoubtedly contributed to the popularity of pathology (Goleman, 1997, 1999; Ledoux, 2000; Sehr, 1999). However, the coherent theoretical concept explaining the origin of Alexitimia did not arise, although a recent attempt by Polish psychologists to create such a theoretical model (Maruszewski & Cigaa, 1998) should be considered successful and heuristic valuable.

Important:

At the same time, the results of some more objectified studies indicate that Alexitimic personality traits are also found among the population of healthy people (cf. Blanchard et al., 1981; Parker et al., 1993b).
This contradicts the existence of a specific connection between Alexitimia and psychosomatic diseases.
This is also confirmed by Alexitimia, found in other somatic diseases, dependencies and psychopathological syndromes in people without psychosomatic diseases.

Similarly, various neurophysiological and behavioral concepts of how this form of personality disorder arises (cf. Brzeziski, 1995). Currently, the opinion prevails that not classical psychoanalytic therapy, but other methods and techniques of psychotherapeutic treatment can be effective in relation to patients with psychosomatic diseases (cf. stephanos et al., 1976).

How to treat Alexitimia in children, adolescents, adults, how to get rid of: correction

Important: Treatment of Alexitimia in children and adolescents should only be carried out by a clinical psychotherapist. If the parents saw the wrong behavior in their education, then you can change it, but the baby will still have to be corrected, since the psyche is already broken. Mom and dad of such a child should also be observed with a psychologist or psychotherapist.

How to treat adult aleksitimia, how to get rid of? There are 3 effective advice that, if you follow it correctly, can facilitate the condition and eventually lead to recovery:

It is important to understand what emotions are and why they are needed:

Emotions are psychophysiological reactions in which not only the brain, but the whole organism is involved. They are the start of physiological changes that provide behavior necessary in this situation.
For example, if an emotion of fear appears during danger, then an organism reaction appears aimed at protecting the body from a threat, preserving life. The emission of adrenaline occurs, the heartbeat, breathing, muscles acquire tone and become more active.
But a person with this disease cannot understand what kind of emotions, and for example, during fear, when a rapid heartbeat occurs, the individual thinks that he has problems with the cardiovascular system.

Learn to recognize your emotions:

Start with physical sensations. For example, if your legs are shaking, your heart often beats, dry mouth, I want to go from side to side, then perhaps you are alarming and fear.
Start recognizing emotions from the simplest situations. Catch yourself thinking about how you feel when the dog licked your hand, you ate your favorite dish or you don't like something.
In the case of interpersonal relationships, it will be a little more complicated. But still catch your thoughts and feelings at the time of communication. For example, you squeeze your fists, your nostrils are swollen, eyebrows move, which means that you are anger. If, on the contrary, a smile appears on the face, it spreads through the whole body, it means that communication with this person is pleased.

Learn to express emotions verbally and non -verbally:

Please note that people talk to emotions on their faces. If you say something, and your face will be stone, then the interlocutor will only feel false.
Train in front of the mirror. Shout: "I won a million!" - Once without emotion, the second with a wide smile.
Pay attention to emotions while you pronounce the phrase. If you do this with a stone face, then the feelings will be strange - aren't it?

Advice: If these tips and daily classes do not help, then contact a therapist. Especially, this must be done if alexitimiy It prevents you from living. A specialist in a short time will help to solve the problem.

So, despite all the above numerous counterarguments, it is likely that for some time they will talk about the myth of Alexitimia and will further be of interest to many researchers who want to test its real existence. Probably, not anticipating such a final solution to the problem, a well -known expert in this area Tirer (1988) in a well -known monograph on personal disorders published under his editorship does not at all pay any attention to hypothetical aleksitimia. The psychosomatics textbooks do not say anything about Alexitimia (cf. Tylka, 2000). No wonder, as it might seem, no psychiatric classification system, including the most important, i.e. ICD-10 (1992) and DSM-IV (1994), does not take into account this diagnostic category.

How do you understand what Alexitimiy is? How do you cope with pathology?