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Abstract
Alexithymia, by definition, involves difficulties in identifying and describing emotions
and has been assumed to be associated with somatization (i.e., a tendency to express
psychological distress in somatic rather than emotional form). Empirical research
so far, however, has produced no convincing evidence that alexithymia is more associated
with somatic complaints than with emotional complaints or that alexithymia correlates
with somatic complaints when negative affect is controlled for. In the present study,
alexithymia, as measured by the TAS-20, showed no association with somatic complaints
in a community sample of 137 individuals when trait anxiety and depression were controlled.
Alexithymia did correlate negatively with positive affect, and positively with negative
affect. The former association, however, was much more robust, whereas the latter
association was found mainly on subjective trait measures of negative affect (as distinct
from state measures and more objective trait measures derived from daily recordings
during an 8-week period). It is suggested that the association between alexithymia
and lack of positive affect deserves more attention in future research.