THE ALEXITHYMIC EXECUTIVE 77
tial hidden deep within them. Like the Tin Man, once he dis-
covered that he had a heart, they will learn not to be afraid of
expressing themselves. Such a change in relating goes a long
way towards raising morale, inspiring, and getting the best out
of people, making the organization a more exciting place to
work.
- We can encourage alexithymics (whether primary or secondary) to seek
outside help. Performance appraisal conducted via a 360 - degree
feedback system — that is, a system that gives feedback from
superiors, colleagues and subordinates — is useful in this regard.
The results of such an appraisal may indicate to the person in
question that he or she has ‘ dead fi sh ’ behavior problems. If
the appraisers present a consensus that the person ’ s style is not
effective, he or she may see the need for help. A host of thera-
pies are available for people who have diffi culties with emotional
expressiveness. Psychodynamically oriented and supportive psy-
chotherapy can be benefi cial, for example, as can group and
family therapy, in which group members and spouses lend assist-
ance as educators of emotions. Through these various kinds of
interventions, alexithymics can learn to recognize, tolerate, and
verbalize different feelings, and they have the chance to practice
their capacity for refl ective self - observation. Behavioral tech-
niques such as biofeedback, relaxation training, autogenic train-
ing, guided imagery, and hypnosis may also be of some help
with both forms of alexithymia. These techniques give people
a sense of control over stressful responses and increase their
awareness of the relationship between bodily sensations and
environmental events.
- We can refer alexithymics to the human resources department. HR
people can play an important role in pointing out a variety of
ways to tackle the problem. They might direct the person to
selected leadership seminars of a more experiential nature with
individual and group feedback, for example, or recommend a
leadership coach. Feedback given at appropriate times by people
in the seminar or by coaches could help these people to be more
daring in their emotional expressiveness. Apart from these more
easily accepted solutions, they might also outline the various
therapeutic approaches cited above.
