Chapter 1 16 physiologically, and to a certain extent, behaviourally. What lacks to them is the experience of the emotion—the feeling [11, 84, 85]. The groundwork for the alexithymia construct was laid in the years before however - during the late 1940’s to early 1970’s, when a broader movement within psychodynamic thinking was taking place from thinking about unconscious conflicts and blocking of affects to a focus on developmental deficits [72]. The deficit oriented, phenomenological description by Sifneos has been the starting point of a vivid line of research that has been expanding and developing ever since. Over the years, attempts have been made to increase understanding and to refine, reform, and expand the concept of alexithymia. 1.5 The connection between physiology, behaviour and felt emotion: a matter of response coherence A central postulate of many emotion theories is that emotions involve coordinated changes across physiological, behavioural, and experiential response systems. This general response coherence postulate is also present in James’ theory and in the recent revival of the ‘somatic theory of emotion’ [5]. Often, this response coherence is associated with an evolutionary perspective on the function of emotions [86]. Despite its apparent face-validity, the relationships between the physiological, behavioural, and experiential components of emotion have been found to be complex. While a proportion of studies found support for response coherence, several other studies did not. In mentioning the ‘physiology of emotion’, one is most often referring to the role of the autonomous nervous system (ANS) in emotion. ANS activity is viewed as a major component of the emotion response in many recent theories of emotion [87]. There exists an extensive body of research on the interrelationship of ANS activity and (felt) emotion. However, across different theories on the matter, many oppose each other to a certain extent, and so do findings from related studies that have tested these theories. Thus, the overall conclusion to date seems to be that “there is no scientific consensus on whether there exists a relation between emotion and the organization of autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity and, if so, in what form (p.395)” [87]. As it appears, the type of and strength of any given relationship between a measure of physiology and other emotional aspects are dependent on multiple factors. So, instead of investigating single isolated changes in physiology and their effects, alexithymia subtypes using latent profile analysis. Psychiatry Research, 2021. 299, 82. Moormann, P.P., et al., New avenues in alexithymia research: The creation of alexithymia types, in Emotion regulation: Conceptual and clinical issues., A. Vingerhoets, et al., Editors. 2008, Springer Science + Business Media: New York, NY, US. p. 27-42, 83. van Dijke, A., Alexithymia types in borderline personality disorder and somatic symptom disorder. 2018.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjY0ODMw