Which personality disorder is characterized by extreme introversion and withdrawal from human relationships?
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Schizoid personality disorder (, often abbreviated as SzPD or ScPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a lack of interest in social relationships, a tendency toward a solitary or sheltered lifestyle, secretiveness, emotional coldness, detachment and apathy. Affected individuals may be unable to form intimate attachments to others and simultaneously possess a rich and elaborate but exclusively internal fantasy world.[6][12] Other associated features include stilted speech, a lack of deriving enjoyment from most activities, feeling as though one is an "observer" rather than a participant in life, an inability to tolerate emotional expectations of others, apparent indifference when praised or criticized, a degree of asexuality, and idiosyncratic moral or political beliefs.[13] Symptoms typically start in late childhood or adolescence.[6] The cause of SzPD is uncertain, but there is some evidence of links and shared genetic risk between SzPD, other cluster A personality disorders (such as schizotypal personality disorder) and schizophrenia. Thus, SzPD is considered to be a "schizophrenia-like personality disorder".[4][14] It is diagnosed by clinical observation, and it can be very difficult to distinguish SzPD from other mental disorders or conditions (such as autism spectrum disorder, with which it may sometimes overlap).[15][16] The effectiveness of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological treatments for the disorder has yet to be empirically and systematically investigated. This is largely because people with SzPD rarely seek treatment for their condition.[6] Originally, low doses of atypical antipsychotics were also used to treat some symptoms of SzPD, but their use is no longer recommended.[17] The substituted amphetamine bupropion may be used to treat associated anhedonia.[7] However, it is not general practice to treat SzPD with medications, other than for the short-term treatment of acute co-occurring disorders (e.g. depression).[18] Talk therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) may not be effective, because people with SzPD may have a hard time forming a good working relationship with a therapist.[6] SzPD is a poorly studied disorder, and there is little clinical data on SzPD because it is rarely encountered in clinical settings. Studies have generally reported a prevalence of less than 1%.[4][11][5] It is more commonly diagnosed in males than in females.[11] SzPD is linked to negative outcomes, including a significantly compromised quality of life, reduced overall functioning even after 15 years and one of the lowest levels of "life success" of all personality disorders (measured as "status, wealth and successful relationships").[8][9][10] Bullying is particularly common towards schizoid individuals.[3][19] Suicide may be a running mental theme for schizoid individuals, though they are not likely to actually attempt it.[20] Some symptoms of SzPD (e.g. solitary lifestyle and emotional detachment), however, have been stated as general risk factors for serious suicidal behaviour.[21] Signs and symptoms[edit]People with SzPD are often aloof, cold and indifferent, which causes interpersonal difficulty. Most individuals diagnosed with SzPD have trouble establishing personal relationships or expressing their feelings meaningfully. They may remain passive in the face of unfavorable situations. Their communication with other people may be indifferent and terse at times. Schizoid personality types often lack the ability to assess the impact of their own actions in social situations.[22] A person with SzPD may feel suffocated when their personal space is violated and take actions to avoid this feeling.[citation needed] People who have SzPD tend to be happiest when in relationships in which their partner places few emotional or intimate demands on them and does not expect phatic or social niceties. It is not necessarily people they want to avoid, but negative or positive emotional expectations, emotional intimacy and self-disclosure.[23] Therefore, it is possible for individuals with SzPD to form relationships with others based on intellectual, physical, familial, occupational or recreational activities, as long as there is no need for emotional intimacy. Donald Winnicott explains this is because schizoid individuals "prefer to make relationships on their own terms and not in terms of the impulses of other people." Failing to attain that, they prefer isolation.[24] In general, friendship among schizoids is usually limited to one person, often also schizoid, forming what has been called a union of two eccentrics; "within it – the ecstatic cult of personality, outside it – everything is sharply rejected and despised".[25] Although there is the belief people with SzPD are complacent and unaware of their feelings, many recognize their differences from others. Some individuals with SzPD who are in treatment say "life passes them by" or they feel like living inside a shell; they see themselves as "missing the bus" and speak of observing life from a distance.[26][27] Aaron Beck and his colleagues report that people with SzPD seem comfortable with their aloof lifestyle and consider themselves observers, rather than participants in the world around them. But they also mention that many of their schizoid patients recognize themselves as socially deviant (or even defective) when confronted with the different lives of ordinary people – especially when they read books or see movies focusing on relationships. Even when schizoid individuals may not long for closeness, they can become weary of being "on the outside, looking in". These feelings may lead to depression or depersonalization. If they do, schizoid people often experience feeling "like a robot" or "going through life in a dream".[28] According to Guntrip, Klein and others, people with SzPD may possess a hidden sense of superiority and lack dependence on other people's opinions. This is very different from the grandiosity seen in narcissistic personality disorder, which is described as "burdened with envy" and with a desire to destroy or put down others. Additionally, schizoids do not go out of their way to achieve social validation.[29]: 60 Unlike the narcissist, the schizoid will often keep their creations private to avoid unwelcome attention or the feeling that their ideas and thoughts are being appropriated by the public.[29]: 174 The related schizotypal personality disorder and schizophrenia are reported to have ties to creative thinking, and it is speculated that the internal fantasy aspect of SzPD may also be reflective of this thinking.[30][31][32] Alternatively, there has been an especially large contribution of people with schizoid symptoms to science and theoretical areas of knowledge, including maths, physics, economics, etc. At the same time, people with SzPD are helpless at many practical activities because of their symptoms.[33] Secret schizoids[edit]Many schizoid individuals display an engaging, interactive personality, contradicting the observable characteristic emphasized by the DSM-5 and ICD-10 definitions of the schizoid personality. Guntrip (using ideas of Klein, Fairbairn and Winnicott) classifies these individuals as "secret schizoids", who behave with socially available, interested, engaged and involved interaction yet remain emotionally withdrawn and sequestered within the safety of the internal world.[20]: 17 [34] Klein distinguishes between a "classic" SzPD and a "secret" SzPD, which occur "just as often" as each other. Klein cautions one should not misidentify the schizoid person as a result of the patient's defensive, compensatory interaction with the external world. He suggests one ask the person what their subjective experience is, to detect the presence of the schizoid refusal of emotional intimacy and preference for objective fact.[20] Frequently, a schizoid individual's social functioning improves, sometimes dramatically, when the individual knows they are an anonymous participant in a real-time conversation or correspondence, e.g. in an online chatroom or message board. It is often the case the individual's online correspondent will report nothing amiss in the individual's engagement and affect.[citation needed] A 2013 study looking at personality disorders and Internet use found that being online more hours per day predicted signs of SzPD. Additionally, SzPD correlated with lower phone call use and fewer Facebook friends.[35] Descriptions of the schizoid personality as "hidden" behind an outward appearance of emotional engagement have been recognized since 1940, with Fairbairn's description of "schizoid exhibitionism", in which the schizoid individual is able to express a great deal of feeling and to make what appear to be impressive social contacts yet in reality gives nothing and loses nothing. Because they are "playing a part", their personality is not involved. According to Fairbairn, the person disowns the part they are playing, and the schizoid individual seeks to preserve their personality intact and immune from compromise.[36] The schizoid's false persona is based around what those around them define as normal or good behaviour, as a form of compliance.[29]: 143 Further references to the secret schizoid come from Masud Khan,[37] Jeffrey Seinfeld[38] and Philip Manfield,[23] who give a description of an SzPD individual who "enjoys" public speaking engagements but experiences great difficulty in the breaks when audience members would attempt to engage him emotionally. These references expose the problems in relying on outer observable behavior for assessing the presence of personality disorders in certain individuals. Schizoid fantasy[edit]A pathological reliance on fantasizing and preoccupation with inner experience is often part of the schizoid withdrawal from the world. Fantasy thus becomes a core component of the self in exile, though fantasizing in schizoid individuals is far more complicated than a means of facilitating withdrawal.[20]: 64 Fantasy is also a relationship with the world and with others by proxy. It is a substitute relationship, but a relationship nonetheless, characterized by idealized, defensive and compensatory mechanisms. This is self-contained and free from the dangers and anxieties associated with emotional connection to real persons and situations.[20] Klein explains it as "an expression of the self struggling to connect to objects, albeit internal objects. Fantasy permits schizoid patients to feel connected, and yet still free from the imprisonment in relationships. In short, in fantasy one can be attached (to internal objects) and still be free."[20] This aspect of schizoid pathology has been generously elaborated in works by R. D. Laing,[22] Donald Winnicott[39] and Ralph Klein.[20]: 64 Sexuality[edit]People with SzPD are sometimes sexually apathetic, though they do not typically experience anorgasmia. Their preference to remain alone and detached may cause their need for sex to appear to be less than that of those who do not have SzPD. Sex often causes individuals with SzPD to feel that their personal space is being violated, and they commonly feel that masturbation or sexual abstinence is preferable to the emotional closeness they must tolerate when having sex.[40] Significantly broadening this picture are notable exceptions of SzPD individuals who engage in occasional or even frequent sexual activities with others.[40] Fairbairn notes that schizoids can fear that in a relationship, their needs will weaken and exhaust their partner, so they feel forced to disown them and move to satisfy solely the needs of the partner. The net result of this is a loss of dignity and sense of self within any relationship they enter, eventually leading to intolerable frustration and friction. Appel notes that these fears result in the schizoid's negativism, stubbornness and reluctance to love. Thus, a central conflict of the schizoid is between an immense longing for relationships but a deep anxiety and avoidance of relationships, manifested by the choosing of the "lesser evil" of abandoning others.[29]: 100 Individuals with SzPD have long been noted to have an increased rate of unconventional sexual tendencies, though if present, these are rarely acted upon. The schizoid is often labelled asexual or presents with "a lack of sexual identity". Kernberg states that this apparent lack of a sexuality does not represent a lack of sexual definition but rather a combination of several strong fixations to cope with the same conflicts.[29]: 125 People with SzPD are often able to pursue any fantasies with content on the Internet while remaining completely unengaged with the outside world.[29]: 127 Akhtar's profile[edit]American psychoanalyst Salman Akhtar provided a comprehensive phenomenological profile of SzPD in which classic and contemporary descriptive views are synthesized with psychoanalytic observations. This profile is summarized in the table reproduced below that lists clinical features that involve six areas of psychosocial functioning and are organized by "overt" and "covert" manifestations. "Overt" and "covert" are intended to denote seemingly contradictory aspects that may both simultaneously be present in an individual.[13] These designations do not necessarily imply their conscious or unconscious existence. The covert characteristics are by definition difficult to discern and not immediately apparent. Additionally, the lack of data on the frequency of many of the features makes their relative diagnostic weight difficult to distinguish at this time. However, Akhtar states that his profile has several advantages over the DSM in terms of maintaining historical continuity of the use of the word schizoid, valuing depth and complexity over descriptive oversimplification and helping provide a more meaningful differential diagnosis of SzPD from other personality disorders.[13] Clinical features of schizoid personality disorder[13]
Causes[edit]Some evidence suggests the cluster A personality disorders have shared genetic and environmental risk factors, and there is an increased prevalence of SzPD in relatives of people with schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder.[4] Twin studies with SzPD traits (e.g. low sociability and low warmth) suggest these are inherited. Besides this indirect evidence, the direct heritability estimates of SzPD range from 50 to 59%.[41][42] To Sula Wolff, who did extensive research and clinical work with children and teenagers with schizoid symptoms, "schizoid personality has a constitutional, probably genetic, basis."[43] The link between SzPD and being underweight may also point to the involvement of biological factors.[3][44] In general, prenatal caloric malnutrition, premature birth and a low birth weight are risk factors for having a mental disorder and may contribute to the development of SzPD as well. Those who have experienced traumatic brain injury may be also at risk of developing features reflective of SzPD.[45][46][47] Other historical researchers had hypothesized excessively perfectionist,[48] unloving or neglectful parenting could play a role. Diagnosis[edit]DSM-5 criteria[edit]The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is a widely used manual for diagnosing mental disorders. DSM-5 includes SzPD with the same criteria as in DSM-IV. In the DSM-5, SzPD is described as a pervasive pattern of detachment from social relationships and a restricted range of expression of emotions in interpersonal settings, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by at least four of the following:[5]
According to the DSM, those with SzPD may often be unable to, or will rarely express aggressiveness or hostility, even when provoked directly. These individuals can seem vague or drifting about their goals and their lives may appear directionless. Others view them as indecisive in their actions, self-absorbed, absent-minded and detached from their surroundings. Excessive daydreaming is often present. In cases with severe defects in the capacity to form social relationships, dating and marriage may not be possible.[19] ICD-10 criteria[edit]The Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders of ICD-10 lists SzPD under (F60.1).[1] The general criteria of personality disorder (F60) should be met first. In addition, at least four of the following criteria must be present:
Guntrip criteria[edit]Ralph Klein, Clinical Director of the Masterson Institute, delineates the following nine characteristics of the schizoid personality as described by Harry Guntrip:[20]: 13–23
The description of Guntrip's nine characteristics should clarify some differences between the traditional DSM portrait of SzPD and the traditional informed object relations view. All nine characteristics are consistent. Most, if not all, must be present to diagnose a schizoid disorder.[20] Millon's subtypes[edit]Theodore Millon restricted the term "schizoid" to those personalities who lack the capacity to form social relationships. He characterizes their way of thinking as being vague and void of thoughts and as sometimes having a "defective perceptual scanning". Because they often do not perceive cues that trigger affective responses, they experience fewer emotional reactions.[28][49] For Millon, SzPD is distinguished from other personality disorders in that it is "the personality disorder that lacks a personality." He criticizes that this may be due to the current diagnostic criteria: They describe SzPD only by an absence of certain traits, which results in a "deficit syndrome" or "vacuum". Instead of delineating the presence of something, they mention solely what is lacking. Therefore, it is hard to describe and research such a concept.[3] He identified four subtypes of SzPD. Any individual schizoid may exhibit none or one of the following:[3][50]
Differential diagnosis[edit]While SzPD shares several symptoms with other mental disorders, there are some important differentiating features:
Comorbidity[edit]SzPD is often found to be comorbid with at least one of several disorders or pathologies. Sometimes, a person with SzPD may meet criteria for an additional personality disorder; when this happens, it is most often avoidant, schizotypal or paranoid PD.[26] Alexithymia (the inability to identify and describe emotions) is often present in SzPD.[60] Sharon Ekleberry suggests that some people with schizoid personality features may occasionally experience instances of brief reactive psychosis when under stress.[26] Substance use disorder[edit]Very little data exists for rates of substance use disorder among people with SzPD, but existing studies suggest they are less likely to have substance abuse problems than the general population. One study found that significantly fewer boys with SzPD had alcohol problems than a control group of non-schizoids.[61] Another study evaluating personality disorder profiles in substance abusers found that substance abusers who showed schizoid symptoms were more likely to abuse one substance rather than many, in contrast to other personality disorders such as borderline, antisocial or histrionic, which were more likely to abuse many.[62] American psychotherapist Sharon Ekleberry states that the impoverished social connections experienced by people with SzPD limit their exposure to the drug culture and that they have limited inclination to learn how to do illegal drugs. Describing them as "highly resistant to influence", she additionally states that even if they could access illegal drugs, they would be disinclined to use them in public or social settings, and because they would be more likely to use alcohol or cannabis alone than for social disinhibition, they would not be particularly vulnerable to negative consequences in early use.[26] Suicide[edit]Suicide may be a running theme for schizoid individuals, in part due to the knowledge of the large-scale ostracism that would result if their idiosyncratic views were revealed and their experience that most, if not all people, are unrelatable or have polar opposite reactions to them on societally sensitive issues, though they are not likely to actually attempt it. They might be down and depressed when all possible connections have been cut off, but as long as there is some relationship or even hope for one the risk will be low. The idea of suicide is a driving force against the person's schizoid defenses. Often among people with SzPD, there is a rationally grounded and reasoned position on why they want to die, and this "suicidal construct" takes a stable position in the mind. Demonstrative suicides or suicide blackmail, as seen in cluster B personality disorders such as borderline, histrionic or antisocial, are extremely rare among schizoid individuals.[63] Schizoids tend to hide their suicidal thoughts and intentions. A 2011 study on suicidal inpatients at a Moscow hospital found that schizoids were the least common patients, while those with cluster B personality disorders were the most common.[63] Asperger syndrome[edit]Several studies have reported an overlap or comorbidity with the autism spectrum disorder Asperger syndrome.[64][15][16][65] Asperger syndrome had traditionally been called "schizoid disorder of childhood", and Eugen Bleuler coined both the terms "autism" and "schizoid" to describe withdrawal to an internal fantasy, against which any influence from outside becomes an intolerable disturbance.[66] In a 2012 study of a sample of 54 young adults with Asperger syndrome, it was found that 26% of them also met criteria for SzPD, the highest comorbidity out of any personality disorder in the sample (the other comorbidities were 19% for obsessive–compulsive personality disorder, 13% for avoidant personality disorder and one female with schizotypal personality disorder). Additionally, twice as many men with Asperger syndrome met criteria for SzPD than women. While 41% of the whole sample were unemployed with no occupation, this rose to 62% for the Asperger's and SzPD comorbid group.[15] Tantam suggested that Asperger syndrome may confer an increased risk of developing SzPD.[64] A 2019 study found that 54% of a group of males aged 11 to 25 with Asperger syndrome showed significant SzPD traits, with 6% meeting full diagnostic criteria for SzPD, compared to 0% of a control.[16] In the 2012 study, it was noted that the DSM may complicate diagnosis by requiring the exclusion of a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) before establishing a diagnosis of SzPD. The study found that social interaction impairments, stereotyped behaviours and specific interests were more severe in the individuals with Asperger syndrome also fulfilling SzPD criteria, against the notion that social interaction skills are unimpaired in SzPD. The authors believe that substantial subgroup of people with autism spectrum disorder or PDD have clear "schizoid traits" and correspond largely to the "loners" in Lorna Wing's classification The autism spectrum (Lancet 1997), described by Sula Wolff.[15] The authors of the 2019 study hypothesised that it is extremely likely that historic cohorts of adults diagnosed with SzPD either also had childhood-onset autistic syndromes or were misdiagnosed. They stressed that further research to clarify overlap and distinctions between these two syndromes was strongly warranted, especially given that high-functioning autism spectrum disorders are now recognised in around 1% of the population.[67] Low weight[edit]A study which looked at the body mass index (BMI) of a sample of both male adolescents diagnosed with SzPD and those diagnosed with Asperger syndrome found that the BMI of all patients was significantly below normal. Clinical records indicated abnormal eating behaviour by some patients. Some patients would only eat when alone and refused to eat out. Restrictive diets and fears of disease were also found. It was suggested that the anhedonia of SzPD may also cover eating, leading schizoid individuals to not enjoy it. Alternatively, it was suggested that schizoid individuals may not feel hunger as strongly as others or not respond to it, a certain withdrawal "from themselves".[3] [edit]Another study looked at rates of anti-social conduct in boys with either SzPD or Asperger syndrome compared with a control group of non-schizoid individuals and found the incidence of anti-social conduct to be the same in both groups. However, the schizoid boys stole significantly less. Upon follow-up in adulthood, out of a matched group of 19 boys with SzPD and 19 boys without, four of the schizoid boys reported having exclusively internal violent fantasies (concerned with Zulu wars, abattoirs, fascists and communists and a collection of knives, respectively), which were pursued entirely by themselves, while the only non-schizoid subject to report a violent fantasy life shared his with a group of young men (dressing up and riding motorcycles as a self-styled "panzer" group).[61] An absent parent or socio-economic disadvantage did not seem to affect the risk of anti-social conduct in schizoid individuals as much as it did in non-schizoid individuals. Absent parents and parental socio-economic disadvantage were also less common in the schizoid group.[61] Controversy[edit]The original concept of the schizoid character developed by Ernst Kretschmer in the 1920s comprised an amalgamation of avoidant, schizotypal and schizoid traits. It was not until 1980 and the work of Theodore Millon that led to splitting this concept into three personality disorders (now schizoid, schizotypal and avoidant). This caused debate about whether this was accurate or if these traits were different expressions of a single personality disorder.[68] It has also been argued due to the poor consistency and efficiency of diagnosis due to overlapping traits that SzPD should be removed altogether from the DSM.[65] A 2012 article suggested that two different disorders may better represent SzPD: one affect-constricted disorder (belonging to schizotypal PD) and a seclusive disorder (belonging to avoidant PD). They called for the replacement of the SzPD category from future editions of the DSM by a dimensional model which would allow for the description of schizoid traits on an individual basis.[10] Some critics such as Nancy McWilliams of Rutgers University and Parpottas Panagiotis of European University Cyprus argue that the definition of SzPD is flawed due to cultural bias and that it does not constitute a mental disorder but simply an avoidant attachment style requiring more distant emotional proximity.[69][70] If that is true, then many of the more problematic reactions these individuals show in social situations may be partly accounted for by the judgements commonly imposed on people with this style. However, impairment is mandatory for any behaviour to be diagnosed as a personality disorder. SzPD seems to satisfy this criterion because it is linked to negative outcomes. These include a significantly compromised quality of life, reduced overall functioning even after 15 years and one of the lowest levels of "life success" of all personality disorders (measured as "status, wealth and successful relationships").[8][9][10] However, determination of what qualify as "impairments" or as "negative outcomes" is itself potentially subject to cultural bias. People with SzPD may not regard a lack of social-status or successful relationships, for example, as a harm. Furthermore, correlation with negative outcomes does not necessarily demonstrate that these outcomes were directly caused by the schizoidal traits. Rather, it may be that these outcomes are the result of discrimination against people with SzPD, who may be viewed as abnormal. Treatment[edit]People with SzPD rarely seek treatment for their condition. This issue is found in many personality disorders, which prevents many people with these conditions from seeking treatment: they tend to view their condition as not conflicting with their self-image and their abnormal perceptions and behaviors as rational and appropriate. There are little data on the effectiveness of various treatments on this personality disorder because it is seldom seen in clinical settings.[6][71] However, those in treatment have the option of medication and psychotherapy. Medication[edit]No medications are indicated for directly treating SzPD, but certain medications may reduce the symptoms of SzPD as well as treat co-occurring mental disorders. The symptoms of SzPD mirror the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, such as anhedonia, blunted affect and low energy, and SzPD is thought to be part of the "schizophrenic spectrum" of disorders, which also includes the schizotypal and paranoid personality disorders, and may benefit from the medications indicated for schizophrenia.[18] Originally, low doses of atypical antipsychotics like risperidone or olanzapine were used to alleviate social deficits and blunted affect.[7] However, a 2012 review concluded that atypical antipsychotics were ineffective for treating personality disorders.[17] In contrast, the substituted amphetamine bupropion may be used to treat anhedonia.[7] Likewise, modafinil may be effective in treating some of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, which are reflected in the symptomatology of SzPD and therefore may help as well.[72] Lamotrigine, SSRIs, TCAs, MAOIs and hydroxyzine may help counter social anxiety in people with SzPD if present, though social anxiety may not be a main concern for the people who have SzPD.[citation needed] However, it is not general practice to treat SzPD with medications, other than for the short-term treatment of acute co-occurring axis I conditions (e.g. depression).[18] Psychotherapy[edit]Despite the relative emotional comfort, psychoanalytic therapy of schizoid individuals takes a long time and causes many difficulties.[73] Schizoids are generally poorly involved in psychotherapy due to difficulties in establishing empathic relations with a psychotherapist and low motivation for treatment.[74] Supportive psychotherapy is used in an inpatient or outpatient setting by a trained professional that focuses on areas such as coping skills, improvement of social skills and social interactions, communication and self-esteem issues. People with SzPD may also have a perceptual tendency to miss subtle differences in expression. That causes an inability to pick up hints from the environment because social cues from others that might normally provoke an emotional response are not perceived. That in turn limits their own emotional experience.[28] The perception of varied events only increases their fear for intimacy and limits them in their interpersonal relationships. Their aloofness may limit their opportunities to refine the social skills and behavior necessary to effectively pursue relationships.[clarification needed] Besides psychodynamic therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can be used. But because CBT generally begins with identifying the automatic thoughts, one should be aware of the potential hazards that can happen when working with schizoid patients. People with SzPD seem to be distinguished from those with other personality disorders in that they often report having few or no automatic thoughts at all. That poverty of thought may have to do with their apathetic lifestyle. But another possible explanation could be the paucity of emotion many schizoids display, which would influence their thought patterns as well.[28] Socialization groups may help people with SzPD. Educational strategies in which people who have SzPD identify their positive and negative emotions also may be effective. Such identification helps them to learn about their own emotions and the emotions they draw out from others and to feel the common emotions with other people with whom they relate. This can help people with SzPD create empathy with the outside world.[citation needed] Shorter-term treatment[edit]The concept of "closer compromise" means that the schizoid patient may be encouraged to experience intermediate positions between the extremes of emotional closeness and permanent exile.[20] A lack of injections of interpersonal reality causes an impoverishment in which the schizoid individual's self-image becomes increasingly empty and volatilized and leads the individual to feel unreal.[22] To create a more adaptive and self-enriching interaction with others in which one "feels real", the patient is encouraged to take risks through greater connection, communication and sharing of ideas, feelings and actions. Closer compromise means that while the patient's vulnerability to anxieties is not overcome, it is modified and managed more adaptively. Here, the therapist repeatedly conveys to the patient that anxiety is inevitable but manageable, without any illusion that the vulnerability to such anxiety can be permanently dispensed with. The limiting factor is the point at which the dangers of intimacy become overwhelming and the patient must again retreat. Klein suggests that patients must take the responsibility to place themselves at risk and to take the initiative for following through with treatment suggestions in their personal lives. It is emphasized that these are the therapist's impressions and that he or she is not reading the patient's mind or imposing an agenda but is simply stating a position that is an extension of the patient's therapeutic wish. Finally, the therapist directs attention to the need to employ these actions outside of the therapeutic setting.[20] Longer-term therapy[edit]Klein suggests that "working through" is the second longer-term tier of psychotherapeutic work with schizoid patients. Its goals are to change fundamentally the old ways of feeling and thinking and to rid oneself of the vulnerability to those emotions associated with old feelings and thoughts. A new therapeutic operation of "remembering with feeling" that draws on D. W. Winnicott's concepts of false self and true self is called for.[20] The patient must remember with feeling the emergence of his or her false self through childhood and remember the conditions and proscriptions that were imposed on the individual's freedom to experience the self in company with others.[20] Remembering with feeling ultimately leads the patient to understand that he or she had no opportunity to choose from a selection of possible ways of experiencing the self and of relating with others and had few, if any, options other than to develop a schizoid stance toward others. The false self was simply the best way in which the patient could experience the repetitive predictable acknowledgement, affirmation and approval necessary for emotional survival while warding off the effects associated with the abandonment depression.[20] If the goal of shorter-term therapy is for patients to understand that they are not the way they appear to be and can act differently, then the longer-term goal of working through is for patients to understand who and what they are as human beings, what they truly are like and what they truly contain. The goal of working through is not achieved by the patient's sudden discovery of a hidden, fully formed talented and creative self living inside, but is a process of slowly freeing oneself from the confinement of abandonment depression in order to uncover a potential. It is a process of experimentation with the spontaneous, nonreactive elements that can be experienced in relationship with others.[clarification needed] Working through abandonment depression is a complicated, lengthy and conflicted process that can be an enormously painful experience in terms of what is remembered and what must be felt. It involves mourning and grieving for the loss of the illusion that the patient had adequate support for the emergence of the real self. There is also a mourning for the loss of an identity, the false self, which the person constructed and with which he or she has negotiated much of his or her life. The dismantling of the false self requires relinquishing the only way that the patient has ever known of how to interact with others. This interaction was better than not to have a stable, organized experience of the self, no matter how false, defensive or destructive that identity may be. The dismantling of the false self "leaves the impaired real self with the opportunity to convert its potential and its possibilities into actualities."[20] Working through brings unique rewards, of which the most important element is the growing realization that the individual has a fundamental, internal need for relatedness that may be expressed in a variety of ways. "Only schizoid patients", suggests Klein, "who have worked through the abandonment depression ... ultimately will believe that the capacity for relatedness and the wish for relatedness are woven into the structure of their beings, that they are truly part of who the patients are and what they contain as human beings. It is this sense that finally allows the schizoid patient to feel the most intimate sense of being connected with humanity more generally, and with another person more personally. For the schizoid patient, this degree of certainty is the most gratifying revelation, and a profound new organizer of the self experience."[20]: 127 Development and course[edit]SzPD can be first apparent in childhood and adolescence with solitariness, poor peer relationships and underachievement in school. This may mark these children as different and make them subject to teasing.[19][43] Being a personality disorder, which is usually chronic and long-lasting mental conditions, SzPD is not expected to improve with time without treatment; however, much remains unknown because it is rarely encountered in clinical settings.[6] Epidemiology[edit]SzPD is uncommon in clinical settings (about 2.2%) and occurs more commonly in males. It is rare compared with other personality disorders, with a prevalence estimated at less than 1% of the general population.[4][8][11] Philip Manfield suggests that the "schizoid condition", which roughly includes the DSM schizoid, avoidant and schizotypal personality disorders, is represented by "as many as forty percent of all personality disorders." Manfield adds "This huge discrepancy [from the ten percent reported by therapists for the condition] is probably largely because someone with a schizoid disorder is less likely to seek treatment than someone with other axis-II disorders."[23][75] A 2008 study assessing personality and mood disorder prevalence among homeless people at New York City drop-in centres reported an SzPD rate of 65% among this sample. The study did not assess homeless people who did not show up at drop-in centres, and the rates of most other personality and mood disorders within the drop-in centres was lower than that of SzPD. The authors noted the limitations of the study, including the higher male-to-female ratio in the sample and the absence of subjects outside the support system or receiving other support (e.g., shelters) as well as the absence of subjects in geographical settings outside New York City, a large city often considered a magnet for disenfranchised people.[76] A University of Colorado Colorado Springs study comparing personality disorders and Myers–Briggs Type Indicator types found that the disorder had a significant correlation with the Introverted (I) and Thinking (T) preferences.[77] History[edit]The term "schizoid" was coined in 1908 by Eugen Bleuler to designate a human tendency to direct attention toward one's inner life and away from the external world, a concept akin to introversion in that it was not viewed in terms of psychopathology. Bleuler labeled the exaggeration of this tendency the "schizoid personality".[13] He described these personalities as "comfortably dull and at the same time sensitive, people who in a narrow manner pursue vague purposes".[68] In 1910, August Hoch introduced a very similar concept called the "shut-in" personality. Characteristics of it were reticence, seclusiveness, shyness and a preference for living in fantasy worlds, among others.[68] In 1925, Russian psychiatrist Grunja Sukhareva described a "schizoid psychopathy" in a group of children, resembling today's SzPD and ASD. About a decade later Pyotr Gannushkin also included Schizoids and Dreamers in his detailed typology of personality types.[78] Studies on the schizoid personality have developed along two distinct paths. The "descriptive psychiatry" tradition focuses on overtly observable, behavioral and describable symptoms and finds its clearest exposition in the DSM-5. The dynamic psychiatry tradition includes the exploration of covert or unconscious motivations and character structure as elaborated by classic psychoanalysis and object-relations theory. The descriptive tradition began in 1925 with the description of observable schizoid behaviors by Ernst Kretschmer. He organized those into three groups of characteristics:[79]
These characteristics were the precursors of the DSM-III division of the schizoid character into three distinct personality disorders: schizotypal, avoidant and schizoid. Kretschmer himself, however, did not conceive of separating these behaviors to the point of radical isolation but considered them to be simultaneously present as varying potentials in schizoid individuals. For Kretschmer, the majority of schizoids are not either oversensitive or cold, but they are oversensitive and cold "at the same time" in quite different relative proportions, with a tendency to move along these dimensions from one behavior to the other.[79] The second path, that of dynamic psychiatry, began in 1924 with observations by Eugen Bleuler,[80] who observed that the schizoid person and schizoid pathology were not things to be set apart.[20]: p. 5 Ronald Fairbairn's seminal work on the schizoid personality, from which most of what is known today about schizoid phenomena is derived, was presented in 1940. Here, Fairbairn delineated four central schizoid themes:
Following Fairbairn, the dynamic psychiatry tradition has continued to produce rich explorations on the schizoid character, most notably from writers Nannarello (1953),[40] Laing (1965),[22] Winnicott (1965),[81] Guntrip (1969),[82] Khan (1974),[37] Akhtar (1987),[13] Seinfeld (1991),[38] Manfield (1992)[23] and Klein (1995).[20] See also[edit]
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Which personality disorder detaches from social relationships?Schizoid personality disorder (ScPD) is a mental health condition marked by a consistent pattern of detachment from and general disinterest in social relationships. People with schizoid personality disorder also have a limited range of emotions when interacting with other people.
What is a withdrawal personality?People with avoidant personality disorder have chronic feelings of inadequacy and are highly sensitive to being negatively judged by others. Though they would like to interact with others, they tend to avoid social interaction due to the intense fear of being rejected by others.
What personality disorder involves unstable moods and intense stormy personal relationships?Borderline personality disorder: a pattern of instability in personal relationships, intense emotions, poor self-image and impulsivity.
Which disorder is typically comprised of traits from introversion?Schizotypal personality disorder includes traits from neuroticism (e.g., social anxiousness and social discomfort), introversion (e.g., social withdrawal), unconventionality (e.g., odd, eccentric, peculiar, and aberrant ideas), and antagonism (e.g., suspiciousness).
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