Alexithymia and Autism

The basic definition of Alexithymia is the inability to describe one's own feelings and mental states (http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blog/the-emotional-blindness-of-alexithymia). The question is, what could cause this, and what is the link between Alexithemia and autism? The answer can be traced back to the Theory Mind and the Theory of Mind Mechanism. If we accept that autism is the manifestation of the extreme systematizing brain and a decreased propensity towards empathisizing or mentalizing; if it is harder to represent the mental states of others in one's brain then it is logical that it would be harder to represent and describe your own mental states. However, when we examine this a little closer, we see that this is a little backwards. Rather, if someone has a hard time or they lack the ability to represent their own intentions and feelings then representing the mental states of others in their brains would be even harder. Hence, Alexithymia is the manifestion of the theory of mind deficit in the autistic brain on itself! One who has difficulty representing the feelings and thoughts of others also has difficulty representing the thoughts and feelings within oneself.  If we extrapolate that, boys often have a lesser ability to express themselves than girls; this may be culturally influences, but let us remember that much of culture has its roots in biology. Thus since boys on aggregate out perform girls (and hence males to females) in systematizing tasks, the stronger systematizing tendencies in males and the tendency away from empathizing may also manifest as alexithymia or the inability to mentalize with oneself!