Schizoid Personality Disorder

Schizoid personality disorder (SPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a lack of interest in social relationships, a tendency towards a solitary lifestyle, secretiveness, emotional coldness, and apathy. Affected individuals may simultaneously demonstrate a rich, elaborate and exclusively internal fantasy world, although this is often more suggestive of schizotypal personality disorder. SPD is not the same as schizophrenia, although they share such similar characteristics as detachment and blunted affect. There is, moreover, increased prevalence of the disorder in families with schizophrenia. Some psychologists argue that the definition of SPD is flawed due to cultural bias: "One reason schizoid people are pathologized is because they are comparatively rare. People in majorities tend to assume that their own psychology is normative and to equate difference with inferiority". Therefore "[t]he so-called schizoid personality disorder is one of the more blatant examples of the APAs pathologizing of normal human differences."

Examples: 1. When there is a party, they cannot relate to you because they have different characteristics. 2. Tyler is a 15 year old male who is currently living at home with his mother and younger sister. His mother describes Tyler as always being an odd child who had significant difficulty relating to his peers. As a child he would spend a great deal of time alone involved in role playing. She said that social situations always provoke great anxiety in Tyler and he is extremely socially inept. Currently Tyler rarely socializes, and when he is not in school he spends most of his time on his computer. Tyler spends several hours a day on the Internet playing on-line games and interacting with others in chat rooms. Tyler reports having one close real-life friend but it is not clear when he sees this person. However, he did list several online friends, none of whom he has actually met in person. Tyler has a history of doing poorly in mainstream school and currently is attending a vocational school. He reports being very anxious at school because he doesnt fit in. His mother suffers from depression and anxiety, and he has two maternal uncles diagnosed with 3. Mark sits where instructed, erect but listless. When I ask him how he feels about attending therapy, he shrugs and mumbles "OK, I guess". He rarely twitches or flexes his muscles or in any way deviates from the posture he has assumed early on. He reacts with invariable, almost robotic equanimity to the most intrusive queries on my part. He shows no feelings when we discuss his uneventful childhood, his parents ("of course I love them"), and sad and happy moments he recollects at my request. Mark veers between being bored with our encounter and being annoyed by it. How would he describe his relationships with other people? He has none that he can think of. In whom does he confide? He eyes me quizzically: "confide?" Who are his friends? Does he have a girlfriend? No. He shares pressing problems with his mother and sister, he finally remembers. When was the last time he spoke to them? More than two years ago, he thinks.