Challenges for alexithymia research: a commentary on "The construct of alexithymia: associations with defense mechanisms

The author comments on an article by Helmes and colleagues (this issue, pp. 318–331) that studied defense mechanisms related to alexithymia. What these authors observed is theoretically meaningful, and a distinct strength of this study is that the results are replicated in three independent samples. The study is also exemplary for two typical drawbacks — only student samples and self-report measures are used. The author suggests that when studying alexithymia, researchers use samples that contain a substantial number of alexithymic subjects. Furthermore, variables such as emotional processing and regulation should not be measured with self-report questionnaires alone. Emotional processing and regulation are, in part, implicit and researchers should consider this. The author argues that the standard of alexithymia research could be raised by including interdisciplinary perspectives and experimental methods, and by embedding research more explicitly in theories. & 2008 Wiley Period