Issues With Authority

cont. from

Individuals with SPD do not frequently come in contact with society's authority figures. They are inclined to go their own way but will do so without obvious defiance or a need to demonstrate their independence. Thus, they may be non-conforming but will keep a low enough profile to avoid sanctions, whether at work or in society in general. On the other hand, they are quite sensitive to intrusion and will withdraw from external pressure when possible.

Individuals with SPD are essentially free of any particular internal pressure to do as others do or follow the rules made and enforced by others. This elusiveness is a significant barrier to effective treatment. Individuals with SPD feel no particular need to confront service providers when they disagree and will often be treatment compliant. However, they remain quietly committed to their own course of action, e.g. using drugs when they are once again "free" to do so -- often the day they can leave an AOD or dual diagnosis treatment program.

Schizoid Personality Disorder Behavior

Beck (1990, p. 125) states that others view individuals with schizoid personality disorder as dull, uninteresting, and humorless; they are often ignored. While their speech is laconic and meager, what they say is rarely abnormal (Kantor, 1992, p. 96).

They appear to be indifferent, aloof, and unresponsive to praise, criticism, or feelings expressed by others (Frances, 1995, p. 367). Millon (1996, pp. 217-231) believes that individuals with SPD prefer to be alone and are unaware of the feelings and thoughts of others. While they are not intentionally unkind, they are preoccupied with tangential matters, and seem to have a fundamental incapacity to sense the needs of the people around them. They do not need to communicate and are generally underresponsive to most forms of stimulation or reinforcement. When others attempt to relate to or get to know people with SPD, they are frequently bewildered by the non-response and benign, but very clear, indifference they encounter.

People with relatively normal variants of the schizoid personality disorder appear untroubled and indifferent; they function adequately in their occupations but are rather colorless and shy.

Clients with SPD may live, as adults, with their elderly parents without significant interaction, e.g. they live in the basement and interact with family members in a limited, sporadic fashion. These are individuals who may work as stock clerks during the midnight shift in retail or as a projectionist at a movie theater. If they are detached from a supportive family (particularly if they have become involved with drugs and alcohol) they may become homeless and refuse outreach services designed to engage them in mental health, alcohol and drug, or dual diagnosis services.

Affective Issues

Individuals with SPD are affectively constricted. They are low in emotional arousal and reactivity; they are imperceptive and apathetic. Their inner emotional experience tends to be undifferentiated and unarticulated. Even their language shows a deficit in the range and subtlety of emotionally-related words (Millon, 1996, pp. 232-233).

While these individuals do not particularly struggle with shame or guilt, they can be quite anxious about basic safety (McWilliams, 1994, p. 191). Beck (1990, p.129) suggests that individuals with SPD experience a low level of sadness if separate from people and anxious if they are forced into interaction with others. Once again, most authors will introduce or accept a greater degree of interpersonal ambivalence and discomfort in the schizoid personality disorder than will Theodore Millon who sees these individuals as non-anxious and non-relating.

Defensive Structure

Individuals with SPD utilize defenses to detach and form an emotional barrier; they engage in rumination, rambling speech, intellectualization, cutting off affect, conflict avoidance, and withdrawal (Magnavita, 1997, p. 252). Millon also noted the SPD use of intellectualization. He suggests that these individuals tend to be abstract and matter-of-fact about their emotional and social lives; they engage in few complicated unconscious processes. Their lack of reactivity results in little need for complex intrapsychic defenses (Millon, 1996, p. 232).

On the other hand, the most adaptive capacity of individuals with SPD is creativity. Self-esteem is often maintained by creative activity as these individuals seek confirmation of their originality and uniqueness (McWilliams, 1994, pp. 192-196).

next: Diagnostic Criteria for Schizoid Personality Disorder

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Reviewed: 04/2006