In an article in the American Journal of Psychotherapy, Salman Akhtar, M.D.,[19] provides a comprehensive phenomenological profile of Schizoid Personality Disorder in which classic and contemporary descriptive views are synthesized with psychoanalytic observations. This profile is summarized in a table (reproduced below) listing clinical features, involving six areas of psychosocial functioning and designated by "overt" and "covert" manifestations. Dr. Akhtar states that "these designations do not imply conscious or unconscious but denote seemingly contradictory aspects that are phenomenologically more or less easily discernible," and that "this manner of organizing symptomology emphasizes the centrality of splitting and identity confusion in schizoid personality."[19]
Clinical Features of Schizoid Personality Disorder[19]
Area
Features
Overt
Covert
Self-Concept
(самооценка)
compliant
stoic
noncompetitive
self-sufficient
lacking assertiveness
feeling inferior and an outsider in life
cynical
inauthentic
depersonalized
alternately feeling empty, robot-like, and full of omnipotent, vengeful fantasies
hidden grandiosity
Interpersonal Relations
withdrawn
aloof
have few close friends
impervious to others' emotions
afraid of intimacy
exquisitely sensitive
deeply curious about others
hungry for love
envious of others' spontaneity
intensely needy of involvement with others
capable of excitement with carefully selected intimates
Social Adaptation
prefer solitary occupational and recreational activities
marginal or eclectically sociable in groups
vulnerable to esoteric movements owing to a strong need to belong
tend to be lazy and indolent
lack clarity of goals
weak ethnic affiliation
usually capable of steady work
sometimes quite creative and may make unique and original contributions
capable of passionate endurance in certain spheres of interest
Love and Sexuality
asexual, sometimes celibate
free of romantic interests
averse to sexual gossip and innuendo
secret voyeuristic interests
vulnerable to erotomania
tendency towards compulsive perversions
Ethics, Standards, and Ideals
idiosyncratic moral and political beliefs
tendency towards spiritual, mystical and para-psychological interests
moral unevenness
occasionally strikingly amoral and vulnerable to odd crimes, at other times altruistically self sacrificing
Cognitive Style
absent-minded
engrossed in fantasy
vague and stilted speech
alternations between eloquence and inarticulateness
autistic thinking
fluctuations between sharp contact with external reality and hyperreflectiveness about the self
autocentric use of language.
One patient with SPD commented that he could not fully enjoy the life he has because he feels that he is living in a shell. Furthermore, he noted that his inability distressed his wife.[34] According to Beck and Freeman,[35] "Patients with schizoid personality disorders consider themselves to be observers, rather than participants, in the world around them."
