g circumstances which threaten to disorganize and even destroy their psychic function. Afterwards, they become afraid of experiencing intense emotions and this leads to alexithymia. Children who are sexually abused suffer from traumatic sexualization, stigmatization, betrayal and powerlessness, which can result in PTSD (140).
The literature has reported an association between incest and a parenting style characterized by coldness and lack of affection (Moormann, Bermond, Albach and van Dorn, 2004, 141). The mother in these families is usually particularly cold towards the children. These mothers are often blamed for ignoring the abuse or not having noticed it, building resentment in the child. The parents of children with low self-esteem give little guidance and love, and relatively harsh treatment, using punishment rather than reward systems. In such situations the child is not allowed to express negative emotions. The theory developed by these authors is that the affectionless, high control, punishing parenting style results in children who have difficulties in verbalizing their emotions (alexithymia) and low self-esteem (146). Being poor at analyzing emotions is associated with low self-esteem and with a maladaptive coping style. Thus affectionless parenting styles are most likely to affect children by resulting in alexithymia later in life (147). However, other factors may also be involved, such as an inborn predisposition.
The study by these authors which found that women sexually abused before age ten were poorer at verbalizing emotions that those sexually abused after age ten supports theories that there is a behavioral level to alexithymia in that lack of stimulation of emotional pathways leads to reduced communication between the hemispheres (Moormann, Bermond, Albach and van Dorp, 2004, 147). The authors propose that alexithymia in women after PTSD from childhood sexual abuse before age 10 may be a kind of...