Schizoid personality symptomology.
Fear of humiliation
Shy and reserved
Feels like an outsider
Difficulty expressing anger
Constricted emotions
Passive and unassertive
Lacks social or romantic relationships
Denial of dependency needs
Appears to have little need for human closeness
Lacks social skills
Has difficulty making sense of peopleâs behavior
(constructed using Shedler & Westen, 2004)
A preponderance of neurotic features is likely to greatly reduce the chances that a personality disorder from the schizophrenia spectrum disorder is present (Clarkin et al., 2006). While neurotic level personality organization is marked by a coherent sense of identity and an ability to make strong investments in work and leisure, borderline level personalities are marked by an incoherent sense of self and others, and usually show marked difficulty investing in work and leisure (Clarkin et al., 2006). Borderline and neurotic patients also differ in their ability to manage reality testing, in how they handle and direct aggression, in their internal system of morals and values, and in the quality of their object relations.
While high-functioning schizoid characters may not always show identity diffusion and marked difficulty with reality testing, they are not prone to guilt, or to rigid inflexibility around moral systems as neurotic characters would be (Clarkin et al., 2006). Schizoid pathology is also marked by the use of mostly primitive defenses such as splitting, denial, and withdrawal over the more advanced defenses of the neurotic patient, such as repression, regression, displacement, and rationalization.
Borderline level patients also struggle to empathize with others, have difficulty with social convention, and show self-directed aggression. Internally, borderline level patients often have contradictory or rapidly shifting value systems that they have a difficult time putting into practice, and in severe cases, may appear to lack moral systems at all. Interpersonal relationships at the borderline level are often chaotic or troubled, a factor that is also reflected in confused sexual relationships, or frequently in the case of schizoid populations, a paucity of sexual relationships (Clarkin et al., 2006).
