Abstract

GALLARDO VERGARA, René Rodrigo. Theory of mind and alexithymia: emotional self-awareness and the other's face in a sample of cancer patients and contrast group. Psicol. caribe [online]. 2018, vol.35, n.2, pp.116-130. ISSN 0123-417X.  https://doi.org/10.14482/psdc.35.2.8016.

This research study sought to determine the existence of a relationship between alexithymia and the recognition of emotion in people's eyes. Similarly, to investigate the possible influence that the cancer condition has in this emotional recognition deficits. Thus, we sought to identify differences in these variables in a group with and without alexithymia of patients with cancer and a contrast group without clinical condition. For this study, we worked with oncology patients in two hospitals in Chile, as it consistently has been linked to inhibition and alexithymia as a personality trait associated with people with cancer. The results indicated that the recognized deficit in self-consciousness emotional in alexithymics would manifest, in turn, in a diminished capacity in accounting for the mental background of others, and this result would be independent of the condition of suffering or not cancer.

Keywords : emotional recognition; alexithymia; mentalization; theory of mind; cancer.

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