The Concept of Alexithymia

Year 2013, Volume: 5 Issue: 4, 507 - 527, 01.12.2013

Miray Şaşıoğlu Çağla Gülol Ahmet Tosun

https://doi.org/10.5455/cap.20130531

Abstract

The concept of alexithymia, which means "no words for emotions", emerged in order to explain the symptoms of psychosomatic patients and gained a quick recognition among psychiatrists. However, current studies indicate that alexithymia may be a personality trait seen both in different pathological groups and even in healthy population. At this point, many researches have been made in order to distinguish alexithymia from existing constructs and diagnosis, and to remove the questions on reliability and validity of the con-cept and its measurement. Ongoing discussions on alexithymia will be re-viewed in this study. The controversial concept of alexithymia will be exam-ined in terms of characteristics, theoretical background, relationship with the other disorders, measurement and the critique of the measurement and the concept.

Keywords

Alexithymia, pathology, neurophysiology, psychoanalysis

Aleksitimi Kavramı

Abstract

"Duygular için söz yokluğu" anlamına gelen ve psikiyatri çevrelerince hızla kabul görmüş bir kavram olan aleksitimi, başlangıçta psikosomatik hastalardaki belirtileri açıklamak için ortaya atılmıştır. Ancak güncel çalışmalar aleksitiminin birçok farklı patolojik grupta ve hatta sağlıklı popülasyonda da karşımı-za çıkan bir kişilik özelliği olabileceğini ortaya koymuştur. Bu noktada aleksi-timi kavramının var olan yapı ve tanılardan ayrılması ve gerek kuramsal gerekse ölçümsel anlamda güvenirlik ve geçerliğine yönelik soru işaretlerinin ortadan kalkması için birçok araştırma yapılmıştır. Bu kuramsal derleme çalışmasında da, kavram üzerinde süre giden tartışmaların günümüzde ne noktada olduğu sorusuna yanıt aranmaktadır. Bu bağlamda, aleksitimi kavramı; özellikleri, kuramsal temelleri, diğer bozukluklarla ilişkisi ve ölçümü boyutlarında incelenmekte; hem ölçüme hem de kavrama yönelik eleştiriler ele alınmıştır

Keywords

Aleksitimi, patoloji, nörofizyoloji, psikanaliz

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