Inconspicuous Anomalies: Alexithymia and Ethical Relations to the Self

Abstract

This article uses the analysis and discussion of the ‘alexithymia construct’ to approach the question of how we might think about the relationship between ethics and illness. After a brief introduction to the construct, its paradigmatic potential within the broader context of psychosomatic medicine is discussed. The article then elaborates on the sociocultural specificity of alexithymia, both as a construct and as a mode of being, to argue that central to this construct is the cultural value ascribed to the notion of an ‘authentic self’. The implications of the alexithymia construct are then examined in the vocabulary of narrative approaches to self and illness. The construct may be regarded as an expert meta-narrative on the relative value of different self-narratives in relation to the possibility of disease. As a result, the ethical responsibilities associated both with narrative and with illness become expanded and transformed.