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Dependency and alexithymia in psychiatric inpatients
1Department of Psychiatry, SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse, New York 13210, USA.
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
|May 1, 1996
Summary
Alexithymic individuals, who have difficulty identifying emotions, tend to deny undesirable personality traits like dependency on self-report tests. This defensive pseudonormality masks their true dependency needs, which are comparable to nonalexithymic persons.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Psychiatry
- Personality Science
Background:
- Alexithymia is characterized by difficulty identifying and describing emotions.
- Alexithymic individuals often exhibit defensive pseudonormality, downplaying psychological issues.
- The tendency to minimize problems may extend to acknowledging undesirable personality traits.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if alexithymic individuals are unwilling to acknowledge dependency, an undesirable personality trait.
- To explore the relationship between alexithymia and the acknowledgment of dependency needs.
Main Methods:
- A mixed-sex sample of 372 psychiatric inpatients was assessed.
- Participants were screened for alexithymia levels.
- Self-report and projective measures of dependency were administered.
Main Results:
- Significant negative correlations were found between alexithymia scores and self-report dependency measures in both sexes.
- No significant relationships were observed between alexithymia scores and projective dependency measures.
- Alexithymic individuals were less likely to acknowledge dependency on self-report tests.
Conclusions:
- Alexithymic and nonalexithymic individuals possess similar underlying dependency needs.
- Alexithymic persons demonstrate a reluctance to acknowledge dependency when using self-report measures.
- Defensive pseudonormality in alexithymia extends to the denial of undesirable personality traits.