Abstract
I arrived at the study of alexithymia through the psychological study of men and masculinity, so I will first introduce this area of scientific study. I will then outline how I arrived at the idea that boys who are reared to conform to the masculine norm of restrictive emotionality are at risk of growing up to be men who have a hard time expressing (even naming) their emotions, a state which I named Normative Male Alexithymia (NMA). I will cover my research into sex differences in alexithymia, the assessment of NMA, defense mechanisms at work in NMA, experimental studies using semantic priming and evoked response potentials, and finally the development and evaluation of Alexithymia Reduction Treatment.