Schizoid Personality Disorder and Self-Image

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Beck (1990, pp. 51-52) suggests that individuals with schizoid personality disorder (SPD) view themselves as loners who prize independence, solitude, and mobility. There is, however, controversy about whether or not schizoid withdrawal from others is preferred or is generated from interpersonal anxiety. Millon & Davis (1996, p. 232) believe that individuals with SPD are complacent with little or no tendency to look into their personal feelings. While there may be minimal anxiety, Magnavita (1997, pp. 237-241) notes that people with SPD recognize their differences from others. He described a client with SPD who was distressed by the thought that there was something wrong with him; he could not enjoy life and seemed to be living inside of a shell. This individual knew that he troubled his wife with his quietness. Seiver (Lion, Editor, 1981, pp. 40-41) described individuals with SPD in treatment who said that life passed them by; they saw themselves as "missing the bus" and complained of observing life from a distance.

Akhtar (1992, pp. 136-140) states that the DSM-III separated what the analysts understood as the schizoid personality into three separate personality disorders: the schizoid, avoidant, and the schizotypal. The DSM-IIIR then shifted the avoidant personality disorder more toward a phobic disorder and suggested that the indifference and withdrawal in the SPD may be more apparent than real. Akhtar went on to suggest that the individuals with SPD have a self-concept that may be overtly compliant, stoic, noncompetitive, and self-sufficient, but they may covertly see themselves as cynical, inauthentic, and depersonalized.

However, if the apparent lack of overt interpersonal anxiety is covertly experienced, the differentiation between the schizoid personality disorder and the avoidant personality disorder becomes substantially more problematic. The schizoid personality disorder is currently defined by the absence of affect, inability to experience pleasure, and low involvement with others. Individuals with avoidant personality disorder may control affect, withdraw from pleasurable activities and avoid others in the name of anxiety management. Both may seek isolation, but individuals with schizoid personality disorder will tolerate the separation with comfort and individuals with avoidant personality disorder will be distressed and lonely. If Millon's view is accurate, individuals with avoidant personality disorder will evidence greater agitation and subjective discomfort. Individuals with schizoid personality disorder will not indicate dissatisfaction with isolation. It would appear that clinically there is support for this view. Individuals with a schizoid personality disorder rarely seek treatment; individuals with avoidant personality disorders often do.

View of Others: Relationships

It is within relationships that the schizoid personality disorder is most clearly defined. In the movie Barfly, the main character, when asked if he hated people said: "No, I don't hate people. I just seem to feel better when they're not around." One client assessed in an alcohol and drug program (at the urging of his wife) reported that he had lived in the basement of the home he grew up in and withdrew to the basement of his adult home to be away from his wife and to smoke marijuana daily. He had limited sexual contact with his wife and let her "do all the people stuff." He was not interested in treatment and did not return after the assessment.

These individuals are characterized by a profound defect in their ability to form personal relationships or to respond to others in an emotionally meaningful way (Frances, 1995, p. 367). They are aloof, introverted, and seclusive; they appear interpersonally indifferent, unengaged, and remote. Social communication is perfunctory and formal (Millon, 1996, pp. 217-231). Magnavita (1997, p. 245) suggests that this distance from others restricts individuals with SPD in their capacity to receive feedback -- the information that could increase their self-awareness and allow them to grow in their capacity to relate.

Individuals with schizoid personality disorder evidence little desire for sexual experiences. They may marry but then be sexually apathetic with their spouse (despite being functional and orgasmic). Sex can mean closeness and enmeshment. For these individuals, abandonment is a lesser evil than engulfment; personal space can become a greater need than maintaining relationships with the people they very much care about (McWilliams, 1994, pp. 193-196).

Gunderson suggests that individuals with SPD "feel lost" without the people to whom they are attached, but when with them, feel swallowed, smothered, and absorbed. Thus, these individuals seek relationships for security but break out again to gain freedom and independence (Akhtar, 1992, p. 132). Clearly, individuals with schizoid personality disorder are going to be most comfortable with others who demand little intimacy and make few emotional demands. One individual with SPD described his non-demanding marriage as being "e;as good as living alone."e; Marriage for these individuals may look a great deal like a roommate situation. If they do not marry or form significant relationships, they may live out their lives sharing a home with siblings or other relatives in comfortable, but non-intimate, stability. Siever notes that they may live or work in a group setting, e.g. religious or counterculture groups, which allow them to maintain superficial contact without intimacy (Lion, ed., 1981, p. 36).

continue: SPD and Issues with Authority, Behavior, and Defensive Structure

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Reviewed: 04/2006