A personality disorder is an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual’s culture, is pervasive and inflexible, has an onset in adolescence or early adulthood, is stable over time, and leads to distress or impairment.
For schizoids, all of these automatic thoughts cause some kind of distress or impairment. And on top of that, there is a much deeper meaning underneath all of these statements, I’ll explain below.
These are the classic, overt (open and observable) symptoms for SzPD:
These are the covert (hidden and concealed) symptoms of SzPD:
I posted more detail about the difference between these two types of schizoids in another post.
The overt, DSM criteria alone causes impairment for schizoids. That is, unless they put on the “mask.” The mask is essentially just looking normal on the outside. This takes effort and usually leaves schizoids exhausted at the end of the day for having to put up a false self. For the schizoids who don’t have a mask (or do, but are too tired to uphold it that day), they appear “odd and eccentric.” They usually display poor social skills and a flat affect. These cause the schizoid to appear awkward and emotionally cold. This can cause impairment in social functioning and work functioning. Their outer symptoms (some schizoids can’t uphold a mask even if they try, it’s hard to do) cause them to fail job interviews, get fired, not get promoted as often as non-schizoids, and cause them to have trouble socially. If they go to college, they are more likely to have trouble with group projects and having a roommate. Below is an image depicting what SzPD generally looks like on the outside (overt) vs what they feel on the inside (covert):
The PDM criteria are the covert symptoms that cause internal distress. Most schizoids match the PDM criteria too. Only in the more severe cases are schizoids impacted enough to where they don’t match most (or any) of the PDM criteria and have zero longing for other people and don’t experience extreme emotions. Most schizoids are highly sensitive, shy, easily overstimulated, fear and long for closeness, emotional pain so strong they must suppress it, and they withdraw into fantasy when needing to seek refuge. That withdrawal to fantasy can be a form of dissociation since they are attempting to detach from their self and environment.
As the severity of the schizoid pathology increases, the patient is likely to show deficits in his social skills and increasingly constricted or absent emotional experience. At the same time, the more acute cases show increasing or total denial of dependency needs and seem to have little need for human closeness.
Schizoids also show borderline level defenses.
For the most part, schizoid patients rely on primitive borderline defenses over neurotic or mature defenses (Giovacchini, 1979). Patients who rely on primitive defenses often have difficulty with reality testing and show impaired ability to interact in the world. These defenses, as listed in Figure 6.3 below, include splitting, extreme projection, primitive denial, devaluation and idealization, projective identification, and omnipotent control (Clarkin et al., 2006). In general, however, the most common of these observed in schizoid patients are splitting, denial of feelings, devaluation of objects, and idealization (Kahn, 1974).
The most common defenses being splitting, denial of feelings, devaluation of objects, and idealization can cause significant impairment and distress. Also schizoids generally avoid relationships due to fear of love being dangerous.
Fairbairn (1940) famously noted the schizoid’s fundamental belief that it is his love, rather than his hate, that destroys relationships. Fearing that his needs will weaken and exhaust the other, the schizoid disowns these needs and moves to satisfy the needs of the other instead. The net result is a loss of ego within any relationship he enters, eventually kicking off an existential panic. Since love becomes equated with unsolicited obligation, persecution, and engulfment, the schizoid defaults to self objects instead, consuming himself with love to avoid being consumed by the love of the other (Laing, 1960). As Appel (1974) notes, “From these fears derive the negativism, stubbornness, and reluctance of the schizoid to love. Since he equates love with fusion, control, and persecution, the schizoid must hate what he loves—the classic ambivalent position”.
Aside from the borderline level defenses when schizoids are in relationships, they also have an approach-avoidance conflict:
When in relationships, the schizoid maintains a pattern of oscillating towards and away from intimacy, alternatively desiring, and being excited at the chance for contact, and becoming claustrophobic, smothered, choked, imprisoned and terrified of being devoured or smothered by the other. The schizoid then must break free and recover independence (Guntrip, 1969). The oscillation in and out of relationships is the real world enactment of these conflicts around involvement. The schizoid’s legendary avoidance of relationships reflects his assessment that abandonment of others is a lesser evil than facing engulfment and loss of self, despite his longing for relationships (McWilliams, 2004; Seinfeld, 1991).
The schizoid alternates between fearing abandonment and encouraging it. Borderline level defenses and approach-avoidance behaviors cause social impairment.
So there are deeper reasons for the automatic thoughts schizoids have. Especially the statement, “It is important for me to be free and independent of others.” The word free implies the schizoid is avoiding something. They avoid obligation, persecution, engulfment, and fear of abandonment (fear of wearing out and exhausting the other person), so they believe it is better to be independent of others so that they can remain free. Underneath all the automatic thoughts are a deeper, depressing undertone full of fear and despair. Any time a schizoid says, “I prefer to be left alone and am disinterested in relationships with other people” they are really saying, “I prefer to be left alone and am disinterested in relationships with other people because I would rather be alone than be engulfed and obligated to another person.”
I’m schizoid and my deeper reasons for avoiding relationships is due to that fear of engulfment and not wanting any obligations towards other people. I don’t want to be obligated to spend time with others. I don’t want to be obligated to provide emotional support or care about their success. I don’t have to be on anyone else’s schedule and I don’t have to revolve my life around someone else. I can do whatever I want, when I want. I can leave the house and not have to tell anyone where I’m going. If I arrive home later than usual, I don’t have to explain to anyone where I was. I associate relationships with a loss of freedom. And that fear of loss of freedom causes me to have a genuine disinterest in relationships with others. I don’t match the PDM criteria for “longing for others” because I’m so deep into my avoidance of losing my independence that I lost interest in others a while ago. To me, other people = loss of freedom. And I don’t see why that would interest me. I don’t see people as confidants, I see them as oppressors. As long as other people are in my life, I’m obligated to give them my time, self disclosure, and in turn become controlled and engulfed. Being with other people feels like I’m being absorbed and swallowed up. Like I’m losing myself.
Non-schizoid people don’t associate other people with a loss of freedom. They intentionally seek out relationships with others because they enjoy friendships and relationships. Non-schizoids enjoy being with people, they aren’t filled with distress and dread at losing their freedom. In fact, they don’t even consider that their freedom is being stolen anyway, since they don’t view friendships and relationships as loss. They view it as a gain.
There is a dark undertone to the things schizoids say and believe. It isn’t always how it appears on the surface. It’s a distressing disorder full of impairment in mental and social functioning.
Treatment of Schizoid Personality: An Analytic Personal Handbook
A clinical dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor or Psychology.
