Abstract Alexithymia encompasses difficulties in identifying and expressing feelings along with an externally oriented cognitive style. While previous studies found that higher alexithymia scores were related to an impaired memory for emotional content, no study so far investigated how alexithymia affects autobiographical narratives. Narrating personal events, however, is impaired in emotionally disturbed patients in that they tend to recall overgeneral descriptions instead of specific episodes, which impairs their narrative emotional processing. Adopting a qualitative approach, this pilot study explored autobiographical memory specificity, cognitive, perceptual and emotional word use, and narrative closure in eight alcohol-dependent participants scoring very high or low in alexithymia. High alexithymia participants showed no reduced memory specificity but impaired emotional processing and narrative elaboration, especially when talking about negative events. Presumably because of this we found no group differences regarding narrative closure. Results are discussed in terms of cognitive and emotional processing, avoidance strategies, and narrative psychology.

中文翻译：

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探索述情障碍的自传体记忆特异性和叙事情绪加工

摘要 述情障碍包括识别和表达感受的困难以及外向的认知风格。虽然之前的研究发现述情障碍分数较高与情感内容记忆力受损有关，但迄今为止还没有研究调查述情障碍如何影响自传叙事。然而，在情绪紊乱的患者中，叙述个人事件会受到损害，因为他们倾向于回忆过于笼统的描述而不是具体的情节，这会损害他们的叙述情绪处理。这项试点研究采用定性方法，探讨了八名酒精依赖参与者在述情障碍中得分非常高或低的自传体记忆特异性、认知、感知和情感词汇的使用以及叙事结束。高述情障碍参与者没有表现出记忆特异性降低，但情绪处理和叙事阐述受损，尤其是在谈论负面事件时。大概正因为如此，我们没有发现关于叙事结束的群体差异。结果在认知和情绪处理、回避策略和叙事心理学方面进行了讨论。