Schizoid Personality Disorder
Schizoid
personality disorder
(SzPD) prototypic description:
Schizoids are uncomfortable being around others and just want to be left alone. Connection
with others is scary and difficult, so they tend to keep to themselves. They come across as awkward,
distant, and overly formal, and may be described as “cold fish.”
SzPD is part of the schizophrenic spectrum, and is
a schizotaxic
PD. It may develop into schizophrenia
or delusional disorder (premorbid).
Features of SzPD
- Triggering Event(s): Close relationships
- Behavioral Style: Lethargic, inattentive, eccentric; slow and monotone speech;
rarely spontaneous; indifferent
- Interpersonal Style: Aloof, loners, reserved, solitary; socially awkward; tend
to
fade into the background; happy to remain alone
- Cognitive Style: Distracted; difficulty organising their thoughts; vague and
indecisive; difficulty with introspection and reflection
- Affective Style: Humourless, cold, aloof; indifferent; lacks empathy;
emotionally
and socially distant; difficulty responding to other people’s feelings
- Temperament: Passive, difficulty experiencing pleasure and motivation
(anhedonia)
- Attachment Style: Dismissing
- Parental Injunction: “Who are you, what do you want?”
- Self-View: Different from others; self-sufficient; indifferent to everything
- World-View: Life is difficult and dangerous; if they trust no one and keep their
distance from others, they won’t get hurt
- Maladaptive Schemas: Social isolation; emotional deprivation; defectiveness;
subjugation; undeveloped self
- Optimal Diagnostic Criterion: Doesn’t want or enjoy close relationships
- Defining Strategy & Belief: Autonomy; relationships are too messy.
Subtypes: Depersonalised; Languid; Remote (Millon);
The Loner; The Intellectual; The "Narzoid"; The Cat Lady; The Histrionic (Greenberg)
Often comorbid with: StPD,
PPD, AvPD, depression
Often confused with: Other psychotic disorders, autism, StPD, PPD, AvPD,
OCPD, substance abuse
Greenberg on SzPD
Major issues:
- Difficulty feeling physically and emotionally safe around others
- Childhood abuse creates mistrust
- Has trouble saying no
- Hard to find a comfortable distance from others
- Fear intrusiveness, getting too close to others, being controlled
- Dissociation, depersonalisation, existential dread
- Fragmented sense of self
Main goals:
- Stay safe
- Avoid intrusive people
- Become independent
Major defenses:
- Keeping their emotional distance from others
- Create a “false self” to interact with the world, burying their “real self”
- Fragments their sense of self, dissociates
- Rich fantasy life
- Distances, detaches, isolates & withdraws
- Looks at things logically instead of emotionally
- Independent & self-reliant
Secret fears:
- That they are alien and unlike anyone else
- They use detachment and isolation as a survival strategy, but fear if they keep doing it
they’ll become unable to have any real connection
Contribution to the world:
- Do more than their fair share because they think it’s useless to complain and
don’t realise they can negotiate
- Work well under isolating conditions
- Creative, due to their internal fantasy world
Interpersonal gestalt: (The primary focus for the person with
SzPD during social interactions)
- Highly sensitive to anything that could threaten their interpersonal safety
- This includes the content of the conversation and the way it’s delivered, e.g. tone of
voice, sudden movements, standing too close
- Attentive to other people’s warmth and liveliness because it’s attractive and
scary at the same time
Motto:
- “Better safe than sorry.”
Subtypes
The Loner
- Lives by themselves, has only a few friends, trys to limit social interactions
- Enjoys privacy & autonomy
- Doesn’t feel safe enough to form close relationships
- Attracted to warm, lively people but find it difficult to be more than casual friends
The Intellectual
- Dissociated from emotions and body, “live primarily in their mind”
- Life is built around intellectual interests
- May join groups or clubs around their interests, which gives them enough social contact so they
don’t feel totally isolated
- Emotional detachment makes them seem to lack empathy
- Usually experienced childhood trauma which caused them to retreat to the safety of their own
mind
The "Narzoid"
- Uses narcissistic defenses to keep their distance from people
- When they say things like “everyone else is too stupid to bother with”, they’re using it
to cover their fear of being close, instead of a feeling of inferiority
The Cat Lady
- Often a “loving but wary” person who struggles with human relationships
- Has turned to animal relationships instead
- Often rescues animals, as they identify with their helplessness
- Still searches for love and connection with humans but only feels safe with animals
The Histrionic Schizoid
- Presents as histrionic or borderline but the underlying reasons for their dramatic emotions are
schizoid reasonings
- Like all schizoids, struggle with feeling safe while being close to others, and with having
physical and emotional boundaries
- Emotional closeness results in fear of losing themselves, which they deal with by dramatically
and emotionally withdrawing