Schizoid Personality - A Deeper Look

The Psychoanalytic Lens of Schizoids

The DSM-5-TR doesn’t always capture the full picture of pathology, and it sure as heck does not capture the full spectrum of personality. There’s a whole range from healthy to ill, and the DSM is only a snippet of that continuum. For the schizoid personality in particular, the DSM describes the outside shell but not the inside person (see our last blog for DSM view of schizoid). Schizoid individuals are not specimens or robots🤖. They are authentic, complex human beings! So, it’s necessary to look outside the DSM to understand the internal workings of these vastly misunderstood, stigmatized, and overpathologized individuals. Let’s take a peek into the shell!

History

Right off the bat, schizoid personality didn’t fit in. Freud focused on the sexual and aggressive drives involved with different personalities and pathologies, but schizoids just detached from those drives, so there wasn’t really anything to work with until object-relations came along¹. Initially, psychologists noticed there was a personality that seemed on the trajectory to schizophrenia, but never actually disintegrated to psychosis (e.g. Kahlbaum’s “heboid,” Hoch’s “shut in,” Bleuler’s “schizoidie”)². Finally, through the lens of attachment, theorists were able to start conceptualizing the “split” between the self and others/the world, as well as the split between the self and one’s own needs that is hallmark for the schizoid personality³.

The Making of a Schizoid

From birth, schizoids have a temperament characterized by being extremely sensitive and easily overstimulated, often moving away from overwhelming things like light, sound, and touch^{4 3}. They feel painful emotions when overstimulated and feel so deeply and intensely that they often suppress emotions altogether⁵. Their attachment figure (usually mom) is neglectful, intrusive, or both. The neglectful mother leaves the kiddo to turn to the self for stimulation, while the intrusive mother wants the kiddo to BE her so that they are enmeshed³. Often, there is a combination of both dynamics. Eventually, this leads to an adult who desires separateness.

Conflict & Fears

Schizoid personalities struggle with the conflict of wanting closeness but fearing it^{5 3}. They don’t fear rejection like avoidant personalities do, but rather fear they will be engulfed, consumed, or taken over by another person to the point that they will cease to be a separate being^{4 3}…and how can one exist if they are not separate? Think about Pacman… if Pacman gets close to the ghost, the ghost is consumed and is no longer a separate being. It is eaten - engulfed, devoured, and consumed by the other. Thus, schizoids feel that others are threateningly intrusive and impinging, and they learned that their own needs for dependency, connection, and love are dangerous. So what do they do?

Defenses & Coping

To survive the world that schizoids find overwhelming and dangerous, they essentially do what they’ve always done. They move away, separate, and withdraw^{4 3}. This can be physical, literally going away and isolating, or it can involve mentally retreating into their mind to detach from what’s going on around them. They also withdraw or move away from their intense emotions when needed, which allows them to objectively and logically analyze their feelings (intellectualization) and be deeply aware of their own psyche^{4 3}. McWilliams⁵ wrote that schizoids are: “startlingly aware of features of their inner lives that tend to be unconscious in individuals with other kinds of personality.” …so what’s actually in there?

Inside the Schizoid

My favorite way to understand a schizoid is through metaphor, which is often their language⁴. Let’s say that all humans are boxes of crayons 🖍️who have all the same colors and amount of crayons on the inside. The outside of the schizoid crayon box looks dull and gray vs vibrant and indicative of the hues inside. Whereas other personalities deny, throw, reject, or hide some of their colors/crayons, the schizoid has access to all of them and has drawn elaborate, multicolored mental fantasies. Instead of discarding these colors as most personalities do, schizoids tolerate their black darkness, perversion, and destructive desires; grey nihilism; red potential for passion and anger…a stark contrast to their dull, boring, unassuming external box.

That’s why it’s so important to look at the psychoanalytic understanding of schizoid personality! Being cliche, the DSM is judging the schizoid “book” by their cover, focusing on the “deficits” of the boring box, while the psychodynamic lens is attempting to peer inside.

If you’re a schizoid and reading this, I hope you feel at least a sliver of validating and understanding. If you love a schizoid, please try to care for them in a way that they need, instead of coloring on their box. If you desire support with understanding and exploring the schizoid dynamics, feel free to reach out! You can look on Psychology Today or if you’re in Virginia, check out our private practice, Quest Psychological and Counseling Services for available services.

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