I had always thought 'schizoid' was just a slang term used to describe someone who appeared mentally ill, or even just very eccentric. But now I know it has a clinical definition, as summarized by Wikipedia:
"Schizoid personality disorder (SPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a lack of interest in social relationships, a tendency towards a solitary lifestyle, secretiveness, and emotional coldness. SPD is not the same as schizophrenia, although they share some similar characteristics such as detachment or blunted affect and there is increased prevalence of the disorder in families with schizophrenia."
The article goes on to describe signs and symptoms:
"People with SPD are seen as aloof, cold and indifferent, which causes some social problems. Most individuals diagnosed with SPD have difficulty establishing personal relationships or expressing their feelings in a meaningful way, and may remain passive in the face of unfavourable situations. Their communication with other people at times may be indifferent and concise. Because of their lack of communication with other people, those who are diagnosed with SPD are not able to have a reflection of themselves and how well they get along with others. The reflection is important so they can be more aware of themselves and their own actions in social surroundings. R. D. Laing suggests that without being enriched by injections of interpersonal reality there occurs an impoverishment in which one's self-image becomes more and more empty and volatilized, leading the individual himself to feel unreal.
"According to Gunderson, "people with SPD 'feel lost' without the people they are normally around because they need a sense of security and stability. However, when the patient’s personal space is violated, they feel suffocated and feel the need to free themselves and be independent. Those people who have SPD are happiest when they are in a relationship in which the partner places few emotional or intimate demands on them, as it is not people as such that they want to avoid, but both negative and positive emotions, emotional intimacy, and self disclosure.
"This means that it is possible for schizoid individuals to form relationships with others based on intellectual, physical, familial, occupational, or recreational activities as long as these modes of relating do not require or force the need for emotional intimacy, which the individual will reject."
And there's more. The whole article is here.
It caught my attention because it seems to describe a more extreme version of myself.
"The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fourth edition, a widely used manual for diagnosing mental disorders, defines schizoid personality disorder (in Axis II Cluster A) as:
A. A pervasive pattern of detachment from social relationships and a restricted range of expression of emotions in interpersonal settings, beginning by early adulthood (age eighteen or older) and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by four (or more) of the following:
1. neither desires nor enjoys close relationships, including being part of a family
2. almost always chooses solitary activities
3. has little, if any, interest in having sexual experiences with another person
4. takes pleasure in few, if any, activities
5. lacks close friends or confidants other than first-degree relatives
6. appears indifferent to the praise or criticism of others
7. shows emotional coldness, detachment, or flattened affect
B. Does not occur exclusively during the course of schizophrenia, a mood disorder with psychotic features, another psychotic disorder, or a pervasive developmental disorder and is not due to the direct physiological effects of a general medical condition.
"It is a requirement of DSM-IV that a diagnosis of any specific personality disorder also satisfies a set of general personality disorder criteria.
"In the draft of the DSM-V it is proposed that schizoid personality disorder should be represented and diagnosed by a combination of core impairment in personality functioning and specific pathological personality traits, rather than as a specific type.
Fewer than 1 out of 100 Americans meet the standard for Schizoid Personality Disorder.
Here's some more from the Mayo Clinic.
6 comments:
This is about me, isn't it?
blogblah
Darnit, I was just getting used to thinking of myself as being somewhere on the Asperger's spectrum, and now this comes along.
Sorry, schizoid men do not obsess on willowy women.
Well, as I said, it's a more extreme version of me. I'm more functional (I think) than the SPD sufferer described.
I like the classification "Mike," though I rather doubt it appears in the DSM. Maybe it ought to.
Chop wood, carry water.
If you're always concerned about Brother Freud and his strange utterances, how can YOUR kung-fu be strong?
Maybe this is nothing more than the fact that we live in a culture that is so oriented towards the extroverted personality type that it sees introversion as a form of illness. Jungian analyst Robert Johnson had some interesting things to say about this, especially with respect to his first visit to India, which he sees as being an introverted, feeling culture. He said it was the first time in his life he felt at home (or words to that effect).
Lark
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