Alexithymia is a multi-dimensional personality trait involving difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings, and an externally oriented thinking style. Poor fantasy life is debated as another facet. For over 50 years, the alexithymia literature has examined how alexithymia-related disturbances in perceiving and expressing feelings contribute to mental and physical disorders. We review the current understanding of alexithymia, including its definition, etiology, measurement, vulnerabilities for both mental and physical illness, and treatment. We emphasize the importance of further experimental and processual affective science research that (a) emphasizes facet-level analysis toward an understanding of the nuanced bases of alexithymia effects on neural, cognitive, and behavioral processes; (b) distinguishes between emotion deficits and emotion over-responding, including when over-responding is functional; and (c) clarifies when and how impairments occur for neutral and positively valenced information or contexts. Taken as a whole, a clarification of these issues will provide clear directions for effective and tailored alexithymia interventions.

中文翻译：

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述情障碍：迈向具有有效干预的实验性、过程性情感科学


述情障碍是一种多维人格特质，涉及难以识别感受、难以描述感受和以外部为导向的思维方式。糟糕的幻想生活被争论为另一个方面。50 多年来，述情障碍文献研究了与述情障碍相关的感知和表达情感障碍如何导致精神和身体障碍。我们回顾了目前对述情障碍的理解，包括其定义、病因、测量、精神和身体疾病的脆弱性以及治疗。我们强调进一步的实验和过程情感科学研究的重要性，这些研究 （a） 强调分面分析，以理解述情障碍对神经、认知和行为过程影响的细微基础;（b） 区分情绪缺陷和情绪过度反应，包括当过度反应是功能性的时;（c） 阐明中性和正价值信息或上下文的损害何时以及如何发生。总的来说，对这些问题的澄清将为有效和量身定制的述情障碍干预提供明确的方向。