Diagnosis, Comorbidity, and the Question of What Makes Us Who We Are Before discussing autistic identity, it is necessary to clarify several terms that will be used throughout this article. Identity refers to the qualities, beliefs, personality traits, social roles, and affiliations that define a person or a group. It may include characteristics such as nationality, sex, profession, values, political or religious beliefs, and membership in particular communities. For example,

The term “alexithymia” was coined by psychotherapist Peter Sifneos (1973) to describe a relative constriction in emotional functioning, poverty of fantasy life and inability to find appropriate words to describe their emotions. For lack of a more suitable term, he called these characteristics ‘alexithymic’[ 1 ]. Since that time research investigating the alexithymia construct has considerably broadened: Alexithymia is a multifaceted personality trait characterised by difficu