What term describes a patient's difficulty in naming and understanding their feelings?

The correct answer is interoceptive awareness. This term refers to a person's ability to process and understand internal bodily signals, which include emotions and feelings. When a patient has difficulty naming and understanding their feelings, it indicates a lack of awareness regarding their internal emotional states, which is central to interoceptive awareness. This concept is important in understanding emotional experiences, as it encompasses the recognition and interpretation of bodily sensations that correspond to different emotions.

Emotional dysregulation pertains to problems managing and responding to emotional experiences but does not specifically address the challenges of naming or understanding those feelings. Social maladjustment refers to difficulties in social situations and interactions rather than an individual's internal emotional awareness. A self-reflection deficit involves challenges in thinking about one's own thoughts or feelings, yet it does not explicitly tie to the understanding of internal bodily sensations, which is the essential aspect of interoceptive awareness in this context.