Alexithymia Reference library
A-Z of Plastic Surgery
... Lack of words for mood or emotion. Seen in patients with Reflex sympathetic dystrophy ( RSD...
alexithymia n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Psychology (4 ed.)
... n. A disturbance of affect and cognition indicated by difficulty in describing or recognizing one's own emotions, and a reduced affective and fantasy life. [From Greek a - without + lexis a word + thymos spirit + -ia indicating a condition or...
alexithymia n. Quick reference
Concise Medical Dictionary (10 ed.)
... n. an inability to express one’s emotions or describe them in words, commonly accompanied by a lack of empathy for the feelings of others. Most often seen in males, it is associated with autistic spectrum disorders ( see autism ) and also with certain eating...
alexithymia n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Nursing (8 ed.)
... [ă-lex-i- thim -iă] n. inability to express or describe one’s emotions in words, commonly accompanied by a lack of empathy for the feelings of others. Most often seen in males, it is associated with autistic spectrum disorders ( see autism ) and also with certain eating...
alexithymia
empathy
fantasy
depression
fantasy n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Psychology (4 ed.)
... n. 1. Imagination or mental imagery . See also alexithymia , fantasy thinking , male hypoactive sexual desire disorder . 2. A product of the imagination, especially one detached from reality, or a daydream such as the Madame Butterfly fantasy . See also primal fantasy . 3. A whimsical or unrealistic plan or idea. Also spelt phantasy . [From Latin phantasia a fantasy, from Greek phantazein to make visible, from phainein to show, from phaein to...
traumatic brain injury n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Psychology (4 ed.)
...brain injury n . Injury to the brain resulting from external force in a road traffic accident, physical assault, fall, or other misadventure. Signs and symptoms include headache, vomiting, nausea, loss of motor coordination, aphasia , dysarthria , alexithymia , dizziness, blurred vision, convulsions , slurred speech, pupil dilation, short-term loss of consciousness , coma , and death. Prognosis depends on the severity and site of the lesion, and length of delay in receiving treatment. Subarachnoid haemorrhage approximately doubles the...
depression n. Quick reference
Concise Medical Dictionary (10 ed.)
...and a diurnal variation of mood (usually patients feel particularly depressed in the mornings). Additional symptoms include automatic negative thoughts, pessimistic views of oneself, the future, and the present ( Beck’s triad of depression ), suicidal ideation , tearfulness, alexithymia , and a poor frustration tolerance. A single period of experiencing these symptoms is called a major depressive episode ; experiencing one or more of such episodes (without mania) is known as major depression, major depressive disorder , or clinical depression . Depression...
Reflex sympathetic dystrophy Reference library
A-Z of Plastic Surgery
...Also get failure of inhibitory mechanisms. • Psychophysiologic mechanisms: there may be a predisposing psychological make-up of patients in some or all of the cases. Some studies have found significant differences in psychological make-up – a high % of patients have alexithymia (‘lack of words for mood or emotion’). Patients are more emotionally unstable and have significantly greater depression. • Opioid pain-control system: endorphins have an inhibitory effect on substance P production. They may have a role in the strong placebo effect in RSD....
autism Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Consciousness
...of anecdotal and autobiographical reports of, e.g., unusual sensory sensitivities and reduced pain responses. Awareness of own emotional states appears to be reduced in many individuals with ASD, at least according to self‐report using questionnaire measures of so‐called alexithymia . Other theoretical accounts of ASD, such as those focusing on enhanced processing of details, may have relevance for understanding self‐awareness, but have yet to be developed in this direction. Although it is never possible to know with certainty what another person's inner...
Anxiety and Fear in Sport and Performance Reference library
Shuge Zhang, Tim Woodman, and Ross Roberts
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology
...narcissism or alexithymia are thought to be more capable of performing well in anxiety-inducing or fear-provoking situations compared to those low in these traits. However, research is unclear as to whether possessing traits such as narcissism and alexithymia would make individuals experience fewer unpleasant states (e.g., experience less anxiety and thus perform well) or tolerate more readily unpleasant states (e.g., experience high anxiety and still perform well). Future research should consider testing the role of narcissism and alexithymia in these...
Psychoanalysis and Psychosomatics in Europe Reference library
Silvia Degni
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of Modern Psychology
...Boston school were reaching similar conclusions, although their approach was closer to psychodynamically oriented clinical psychology rather than psychoanalysis in its strictest sense. These authors coined the term alexithymia to denote a lack of appropriate words to describe one’s emotions ( Nemiah & Sifneos, 1970 ). The models of alexithymia and operative thought are rooted in the idea that the psychosomatic patient is very different from the typical neurotic because of his or her inability to symbolize, to transform emotion into thought, and to engage in...
functions of consciousness Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Consciousness
...(or ‘implicit’) whereas those of conscious states are flexible (or ‘explicit’). The contrast between implicit and explicit influence is seen in a wide variety of clinical conditions, including (but not limited to) unilateral neglect, *agnosia , *blindsight , *amnesia , and alexithymia ( Weiskrantz 1997 ). Although the global availability approach is popular, it is often unclear what the evidence for it is supposed to be. Global availability theorists often seem to argue that mental states whose contents are not globally available cannot be conscious on the...
Men Reference library
Encyclopedia of Social Work (20 ed.)
...result in problematic or risky behaviors and/or health problems. Levant ( 1996 ) has suggested that males conforming to traditional male norms have difficulties with emotional self-awareness, empathy, and expressivity, adversely affecting emotional functioning and resulting in alexithymia (the inability to verbalize feelings). Levant et al. ( 2003 ) reviewed studies supporting a conclusion that differences in the ability to express emotions and feelings between males and females evolve from young age as a result of the socialization process. From an applied...
A Somatic Marker Perspective of Political Decision Making Reference library
Xavier Noël, Nematolla Jaafari, and Antoine Bechara
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Political Decision Making
...(for a recent review, see Schneider & Koenigs, 2017 ). Some of those functions are related to the notion of social cognition, a set of crucial functions for social interactions that encompass emotional and cognitive processing of oneself and others. Lack of empathy and alexithymia could cause profound adaptive handicaps, notably when emotional regulation is needed to avoid experiencing adverse consequences (e.g., dealing with anger). Imputing a mental state to self and other as well as understanding that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and...
Sensation Seeking Reference library
Nancy Grant Harrington
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Health and Risk Message Design and Processing
...vocational school in Switzerland. To assess sensation seeking, he used the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale ( Whiteside & Lynam, 2001 ), which assesses four dimensions of impulsivity: urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance, and sensation seeking. He also assessed alexithymia (the inability to identify and describe one’s emotions) and openness to emotions. Results showed that sensation seeking was positively correlated with participation in risk behaviors and perception of benefits, but it was not correlated with perceptions of risk. A regression...
