ABSTRACT
Among the various emotion-related constructs that have been associated with health and disease, alexithymia has the longest history. Formulated by Nemiah et al. (1976) in the mid-1970s, the alexithymia construct evolved from clinical observations and theoretical ideas described by Ruesch (1948) and MacLean (1949) more than a half century ago. At that time, and for at least the subsequent two decades, the prevailing psychosomatic theories of disease emphasized the role of intrapsychic conflicts in generating protracted states of emotional arousal that were considered pathogenic to the body. Ruesch and MacLean proposed an alternative theory that unmodulated states of emotional arousal that might adversely affect bodily processes are a consequence of deficits in the capacity to represent emotions within the symbolic system provided by language. In their view, such deficits are evidenced by difficulties in identifying and verbally describing subjective feelings.
