Mediating role of insight and defense mechanisms in relationship between alexithymia and psychological symptoms

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between psychological symptoms and alexithymia, defense mechanisms and insight variables, and to examine the mediating role of defense mechanisms and insight in the relationship between alexithymia and psychological symptoms. Participating in a total of 298 individuals [125 females (41.9%) and 173 males (58.1%), aged between 18 and 55 (M.= 32.28, SD.= 7.76)], the study was a cross-sectional screening study. While alexithymia, insight, immature and neurotic defenses, and all psychological symptoms showed significant positive correlations with each other, it was fixed that the mature defenses and self-reflection variables had a very weak and meaningless relationship with psychological symptoms. In the relationship between alexithymia and psychological symptoms, insight, and defense mechanisms do not have multiple mediator effects. While the immature defenses alone have significant mediation effects in somatization, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, anxiety, and phobic anxiety, and insight alone has significant mediation effects in obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and phobic anxiety. The results showed that psychological symptoms increased as alexithymia score increased and that defense mechanisms had a positive and insight had a negative mediation role in this positive relationship. In addition, it is thought that investigating the variables that mediate the variables associated with the pathology might contribute to the understanding of psychopathology.