The trapezius muscle is one of the largest muscles, extending down from the neck to the middle of the upper back and stretching across the shoulder blades. The main job of the trapezius muscle is to stabilize and move the shoulder blades (scapula).
The affect phobia therapist views these conflicts as âaffect phobias,â a phobia about feelings. Similar to external phobias, a patient with an affect phobia avoids the experience and expression of certain feelings like anger and grief in a similar way a person with a phobia about bridges would avoid bridges.
Flat affect, which is also called blunted affect, is one of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. A person with negative symptoms lacks a normal range of feelings and behaviors. The word affect means one's emotional state. To have a flat, or blunt affect means that a person appears to lack any emotion at all.