Based on Jakob von Uexküll’s Funktionskreis as a model of semiosis, Thure von Uexküll developed a biographical approach to medicine. The key to this integrated medicine was curating the patient’s life story through conversation. While Thure von Uexküll rejected the idea of alexithymia (the inability to articulate feelings) as a disorder, he understood the ability to articulate feelings as a skill that can be learned and practiced. Recent research connecting alexithymia to emotional granularity (using more refined vocabulary for emotions for better emotion regulation and coping) confirms the importance of language in the practice of medicine. Alexithymia is now being addressed with increasing interest in psychology and neuroscience (e.g., Barrett, 2017) although without consideration of relevant concepts in linguistics and semiotics. This paper explains that new research agendas concerning alexithymia are predicated upon conjectures reminiscent of verbal deficit theories (e.g., Bernstein, 1966; Bereiter et al., 1966) that have long been criticized by linguists (e.g., Labov, 1970). Verbal deficit theories are especially problematic when coping and health outcomes are assumed to correlate with specific vocabulary or speech styles.