In 1973, Doctor of Medicine, Professor at Harvard University Peter Sifneos actively conducted research in the field of cognitive (mental) and affective (emotional) abilities. He revealed an interesting phenomenon, which was that people suffering from psychosomatic diseases have a problem with labeling the feeling they are experiencing. This interested him very much, and he continued research in this direction. Based on his research, he later introduced the concept of alexithymia - (from the Greek a - absence, lexis - word, tyymos - feeling). Several years before this event, Sifneos had already described observations of patients who used the utilitarian method thinking. People prone to this type always used action in stressful or conflict situations and experienced difficulty in describing the feelings they experienced at that moment. Not only description, but also differentiation of emotions was impoverished. The phenomenon of alexithymia is a psychological characteristic that has certain cognitive-affective characteristics: - difficulties in identifying and describing one’s own feelings; - difficulty in distinguishing between feelings and bodily sensations; - decreased ability to symbolize (impoverished imagination and fantasies); - focusing on external events more than on internal experiences. People who have developed alexithymic radical do not understand what other people feel. They cannot express themselves - this is concrete thinking without taking into account figurative meaning. This condition is typical for patients with classic psychosomatic diseases, who are characterized by an “infantile personality.” They, like children, transfer all their emotions into the body and suffer from the inability to express these emotions. Gradually, this becomes a well-functioning mechanism and the person stops feeling. In clinical psychology, it is customary to divide alexithymia into two types. Primary (not a psychological defense) personal-congenital (approx. schizophrenia, as a disease) organically acquired (approx. alcoholism, manifests itself in 60% suffering) Secondary (or functional) pedagogical: the person does not speak emotional vocabulary, there is a small stock of emotional vocabulary in parents; sociocultural stereotypes. psychological: this type is characterized by “repression of feelings”, inconsistency of feelings; feelings do not fit into the self-concept. 2.2 psychological associated with psychotrauma: fear of not being able to cope with feelings, high intensity of feelings, presence of socially unacceptable feelings. 2.3 psychological communicative: hiding feelings, fear of condemnation, mistrust, shame, embarrassment. linguistic: presence of an inadequate the use of linguistic means - people tend to use words that do not correspond to their introspective experience. I would like to share my experience of communication with people suffering from alexithymia. Conducting art therapeutic trainings for people in psychoneurological hospitals, I had to encounter this phenomenon. A group of men with various mental illnesses, undergoing a mental examination, at my request, painted themselves in the current period. Upon completion, I invited everyone to share what was drawn in the picture and describe their feelings. Imagine my amazement, one might say I was in a state of confusion when each of them told me about what was drawn, and indicated feelings with a number from 0 to 10. Later, I learned that in modern psychiatry there is a practice that helps people suffering from alexithymia to at least somehow identify their condition. Next you can see a drawing of one of the participants in this group. Male, 27 years old. According to him, his mood at the moment is at 7. As you may have already noticed, the drawing is characterized by a paucity of imagination. In the original it takes up 1/25 of a sheet. Title "Doodle". But he liked to draw, although he initially refused. I don’t think he experienced.