Factor analysis of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale: elucidation of a polythetic construct

The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) offers a reliable method to measure alexithymia, a personality construct describing individuals endorsing the inability to identify and report emotions, processing a minimal fantasy life, utilizing an analytic cognitive style, and tending to somatize. Utilizing four cohorts of both patients and controls, a three-factor solution emerged from a principal-components analysis utilizing a varimax rotation. The factors of inability to identify and report feelings, an analytic cognitive style, and paucity of fantasy life were independent and internally reliable. These data are reviewed in the context of previous research and offer three subscales for future investigations utilizing the Toronto Alexithymia Scale.