Clinical/psychiatric term for "emotionless"?

Factual Questions
1

Okay, so while flying to my vaction destination, I had a Stephen King anthology (figured it was good-stupid reading for travel). It was the one with 1408 it it. Anyway, one of the stories, a character mentions going to see a psychiatrist, and being “_____________”.

The narrator explained the term as meaning “emotional flatline”.

As in “totally apathy” or “lack of emotion” or “emotionally numb”. The context was that his marriage had fallen apart and he was so devastated he no longer felt anything at all and was clinically “___________”.

For no reason at all, last night my brain asked itself: “What was that word?” I vaguely recall it starting with an “A” but it’s not “apathy”. It sounded much fancier than that. I think it’s related to “anomie” or had the “an” prefix, but I could be misremembering.

I can’t find the book, and I’m not 100% it was in that particular story. It IS in the book somewhere though, and I distinctly remember the narrator’s definition as “emotional flatline”.

2

I’ve heard the term “flat affect” to describe this - is that what you are thinking of?

3

“flat affect” ? (WAG)

4

No, it was one word. I may have to hunt for the book and find the silly thing.

It’s also quite possible it was a variation of “anomie” and the narrator (who was supposed to be a regular guy) created more or less his own definition. Sort of like “The shrink said I’m ‘dysphoric’ meaning I’m in a lousy mood.”

5

asocial: rejecting or lacking the capacity for social interaction.

6

Well, you could say “The shrink said I’m ‘anomic’ meaning socially unstable”.

7

Come to think of it, he may have been referring to “anhedonia” which is in your link.

Anhedonia = decrease or cessation of all feelings of pleasure (which thus affects enjoyment, happiness, fun, interest, and satisfaction).

Maybe the narrotor was described as “anhedonic” and the emotional flatline was his spin on the word.

8

There is a related word called “anhedonia” meaning the inability to experience pleasure.

9

It fits with the context of the story, being apathetic and listless because his wife left.

That’s probably it. Thanks everyone.

10

Yup, anhedonia.

11

Ah, the glory that is the web. Here’s a story by King from Everything’s Eventual that uses the term “anhedonia.”

12

Minor trivia point: Anhedonia was Woody Allen’s original title for Annie Hall.

13

“Alexothymic” means “unable to describe an emotional state” (sometimes used to mean an inability to recognize or credit, much less describe, an emotional state), so as I opened this thread, I found myself wondering what one would call an inability to describe a lack of emotional state … because I was staring straight at it!

“Phlegmatic” is another, less clinical, word that is often used for a person whose demeanor generally does not overtly display their emotional state.

14

Alexoanthmyic? Alexoanhedonic?