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Blunting can mean to make or to be dull or less sharp. For example, a
pain medication can help with blunting cramps or headache pain. Blunting
is also a term often used in psychology and psychiatry to describe
someone’s affect. Affect often refers to the outward way in which a person
shows his/her feelings or emotions.
When someone has blunting of affect (also known as blunted affect or
affective blunting), it means that there is a decrease in the intensity of the
expression of emotions compared to the level that one would expect in
reaction to a particular situation.
Blunting is sometimes characterized by minimally responding to one's surroundings, rarely using
expressive gestures, little animation in facial expression, decreased vocal inflection, and a tendency to
not care one way or the other about things. Blunted affect is less severe than flat affect. In flat affect,
there is no emotional expression (or almost none).
Blunting is typically seen as a result of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. It can also be
caused by brain damage and schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a type of mental disorder in which one
loses contact with reality. Blunting is the opposite of overreaction, which is an increase in the intensity of
the expression of emotions compared to the level that one would expect as a reaction to a particular
situation.
According to Dr. Pedram Kordrostami M.D, BSC, PGCERT, CEO & Founder of Omre, "blunting often is
written off as a non-issue by non-medical individuals, as the person is deemed 'fine,' when in reality,
nothing could be further from the truth. Blunting comes from the Old Norse word "blundra" meaning
"dull."
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Blunting (Affect)
