Cognitive-emotional processing in alexithymia: an integrative review

Alexithymia is a multifaceted personality construct characterised by difficulties identifying one’s feelings and distinguishing them from bodily sensations, describing to others, an externally oriented cognitive style. Over the past 25 years, burgeoning body of research has examined how alexithymia moderates processing at cognition–emotion interface. We review findings in five domains: attention, appraisals, memory, language, behaviours. The preponderance studies linked with deficits emotion processing, which was apparent across all domains, except All on behaviours proportion other domains demonstrated emotional over-responding. Analysis facet level revealed memory language that are primarily associated thinking, while over-responding most often difficulty feelings. also found evidence for contextual modulation: pattern not restricted contexts but occurred neutral contexts, some circumstances, beneficial. Taken together, this highlights as central dimension interplay between cognition emotion.