Alexithymia and affective verbal behaviour of three groups of patients

The study described in this article was designed to investigate patients' response to affective stimuli on two levels of measurement: one was designed to yield information about cognitive attribution processes whereas the second level was aimed at uncovering deeper, more unconscious responses to the given stimuli. These were displayed as part of an experimental setting, in which three groups were compared: psychosomatic (duodenal ulcer), somatic and psychoneurotic patients. Systematic variation was introduced by showing either of two versions of a short film which differed in the degree of friendliness displayed by the main character. The results show differential effects on the two levels of measurement: in the case of the first level, an interpretation within the framework of current conceptualizations of alexithymia would have been possible, but results for the second level of measurement (utilizing Gottschalk-Gleser content analysis of speech) indicate that psychosomatic patients show the same kind of sensitive response to affective stimuli as patients from the other two groups.