Defense Patterns and Maladaptive Personality Domains of Schizoid Personality Disorder
Psychoanalytic literature (e.g., Guntrip, 1952, 1961; Fairbairn, 1954; Eigen, 1973) suggests that autistic fantasy represents the pathognomic defense of the schizoid personality organization against a conflict between the desire to get in touch with others and the fear of being engulfed and overwhelmed by others, which often leads these individuals to social withdrawal.
Thus, autistic fantasy may help people high in detachment to defend themselves from other people who could be perceived as overly controlling and invading. In this context, the reduced use of reaction formation could indicate a lower tendency of these individuals to deny ambivalence.
Also, projection emerged as significant predictor of detachment. Projection concerns a wrongly attribution of one's own unrecognized impulses, feelings and thoughts to others, so that the individual can avoid to deal with internal experiences that could make him or her too feel excessively vulnerable.
From a psychodynamic point of view, it is possible to hypothesize that increased scores on isolation and projection may help people high in detachment to defend themselves from unconscious feelings of shame and inadequacy. These feelings are likely related to their substantial lack of relatedness (Schimmenti and Caretti, 2016), and the reduced use of humor might further increase, in a vicious circle, the intensity of such unconscious feelings.
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