Alexithymia—A challenge to art therapy: The story of Rita

Since Sifneos in 1973 introduced the term, “alexithymia” to describe the apparent incapacity of some of his patients to discern and verbally express their emotions, without finding a physical cause for it, this phenomenon has become the object of various studies and publications. In the pursuit of effective treatment methods, art therapy has been indicated as being among the possibly effective forms of treatment. But in the literature on art therapy alexithymia up to now has scarcely received the attention the authors believe it deserves. This paper focuses on the concept of alexithymia, especially in psychotrauma, and the usefulness of art therapy. A concise review of literature on the concept of alexithymia is included and an illustration of the use of art therapy by a detailed description of treatment of a case of alexithymia in a patient, Rita, with severe self-pathology, who had grown up in a traumatizing environment. The patient was able to recognize and name emotional reactions after the treatment with art therapy, and thus, art therapy seems to be a promising form of treatment for traumatized patients suffering from alexithymia, even in cases of severe self-pathology.