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Alexithymia is a personality construct characterized by the sub-clinical inability to identify and describe emotions in the self. The core characteristics of alexithymia are marked dysfunction in emotional awareness, social attachment, and interpersonal relating. Furthermore, individuals suffering from alexithymia also have difficulty in distinguishing and appreciating the emotions of others, which is thought to lead to unempathic and ineffective emotional responding.〔 Alexithymia is prevalent in approximately 10% of the general population and is known to be comorbid with a number of psychiatric conditions.〔Taylor GJ, Bagby, M.R., Parker, J.D.A. Disorders of Affect Regulation: Alexithymia in Medical and Psychiatric Illness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999〕 The term "alexithymia" was coined by psychotherapist Peter Sifneos in 1973.〔 pp. 40–59〕〔Taylor GJ & Taylor HS (1997). Alexithymia. In M. McCallum & W.E. Piper (Eds.) ''Psychological mindedness: A contemporary understanding''. Munich: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates pp. 28–31〕 According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the word comes from the Greek words λέξις (''lexis'', "speech") and θυμός (''thumos'', "soul, as the seat of emotion, feeling, and thought") modified by an alpha privative, literally meaning "no words for emotions". ==Classification== Alexithymia is considered to be a personality trait that places individuals at risk for other medical and psychiatric disorders while reducing the likelihood that these individuals will respond to conventional treatments for the other conditions. Alexithymia is not classified as a mental disorder in the DSM-IV. It is a dimensional personality trait that varies in severity from person to person. A person's alexithymia score can be measured with questionnaires such as the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire (BVAQ), the Online Alexithymia Questionnaire (OAQ-G2) or the Observer Alexithymia Scale (OAS).〔 Alexithymia is defined by:〔Taylor (1997), p. 29〕 # difficulty identifying feelings and distinguishing between feelings and the bodily sensations of emotional arousal # difficulty describing feelings to other people # constricted imaginal processes, as evidenced by a scarcity of fantasies # a stimulus-bound, externally oriented cognitive style. In studies of the general population the degree of alexithymia was found to be influenced by age, but not by gender; the rates of alexithymia in healthy controls have been found at: 8.3%; 4.7%; 8.9%; and 7% . Thus, several studies have reported that the prevalence rate of alexithymia is less than 10%. A less common finding suggests that there may be a higher prevalence of alexithymia amongst males than females, which may be accounted for by difficulties some males have with "describing feelings", but not by difficulties in "identifying feelings" in which males and females show similar abilities. Psychologist R. Michael Bagby and psychiatrist Graeme J. Taylor have argued that the alexithymia construct is strongly related (negatively) to the concepts of psychological mindedness〔Taylor & Taylor (1997), pp. 77–104〕 and emotional intelligence〔Taylor (1997), p. 38〕 and there is "strong empirical support for alexithymia being a stable personality trait rather than just a consequence of psychological distress".〔Taylor (1997), p. 37〕 Other opinions differ and can show evidence that it may be state-dependent. Bagby and Taylor also suggest that there may be two kinds of alexithymia, "primary alexithymia" which is an enduring psychological trait that does not alter over time, and "secondary alexithymia" which is state-dependent and disappears after the evoking stressful situation has changed. These two manifestations of alexithymia are otherwise called "trait" or "state" alexithymia.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「alexithymia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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