Affective Suppression Fatigue: A Novel Neuropsychological Framework

This paper introduces Affective Suppression Fatigue (ASF), a novel neuropsychological framework describing how chronic emotional suppression leads to cumulative functional fatigue in prefrontal emotion-regulation circuits. By integrating psychological theories of emotion regulation with neuroscientific evidence on DLPFC, ACC, VMPFC, and amygdala function, ASF explains clinical phenomena such as emotional blunting, alexithymia, insomnia, and affective outbursts. The framework offers new insights for understanding emotional dysregulation and informs potential therapeutic interventions.