Alexithymia and dissociative tendencies

✍ Scribed by Harvey J. Irwin; Elizabeth B. Melbin-Helberg

• Book ID: 101258657
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 75 KB
• Volume: 53
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9762
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4679(199702)53:2<159::aid-jclp9>3.0.co;2-o

✦ Synopsis

This study is one of a series exploring the potential of affective variables as predictors of dissociative tendencies. Some clinicians have observed that traumatized children who develop a dissociative coping style also tend to fail to discriminate emotions by verbal means. The study therefore investigated a relationship between dissociation and alexithymia. Undergraduate psychology students were individually tested for dissociative tendencies, alexithymic characteristics, and ability to generate the names of emotions. Dissociation was found to be predicted by some aspects of alexithymia but not by affective fluency. The data are interpreted in terms of the concept of asymmetry of dissociative processes.