Main features
Schizoids are quite withdrawn, despite the fact that they have a rich inner world. It turns out to be simply impossible to verbalize what is inside.
Therefore, others perceive him as a cold person, completely devoid of emotions. And only those whom he allowed close enough to him, to whom he opened up, know how sophisticated and sensitive he is.
They have practically no ability to anticipate or anticipate any events.
This trait is usually called intuition. They do not know how to empathize, notice and correctly interpret the feelings of other people. That is, they may well not notice that someone has fallen in love, or, on the contrary, feels hostility towards them.
Therefore, things are not always smooth with love relationships. Firstly, for a person with schizoid accentuation to trust another, something almost unreal must happen. And secondly, he simply will not understand that they are flirting with him and trying in every possible way to attract attention.
But if you happen to find yourself in a relationship with him, you won’t find a more devoted and unique companion.
Due to the inability to distinguish between emotions and capture the moods and desires of others, it may seem insensitive and cruel.
An interesting fact is that, completely unexpectedly even for himself, he can open his soul to a stranger. While close people with whom he spent many years will not know even half of what he told a random companion on the road.
The richness of the inner world is ensured by a well-developed imagination. That is why he feels so good alone with himself. In his dreams and daydreams, something awaits him that no one in reality can give.
By the way, a schizoid personality will tolerate excessive care, control, even some despoticism and power from a partner, but if suddenly someone decides to invade his personal space, finding out what he dreams about there, then in this case he is capable of aggressive assertion and protection their interests.
By the way, he can get into awkward situations because of his straightforwardness. Without thinking about the consequences that some words will bring him trouble and also hurt his interlocutors, he honestly expresses his opinion, criticizing in addition.
Examples of “schizoids” among prominent figures
If we consider statistical data on individuals with a schizoid personality type, who are found among the entire population in 7.5% of cases, we can conclude that there is a significant proportion of mentally unstable people. There is no particular gender difference when identifying the frequency of manifestation of schizoid personalities, but, according to some data, the ratio tends to be 2:1, where the preponderance will be on the side of men.
It is amazingly common among famous figures to find those who have a schizoid personality type. Examples? A lot of them. These are outstanding scientists - Albert Einstein, Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev, Isaac Newton, and famous philosophers - Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Arthur Schopenhauer, and brilliant composers - Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and the famous artist Salvador Dali, and many other.
Childhood
It is quite simple to understand that a child is schizoid. He will avoid noisy companies that children usually gravitate towards.
Therefore, instead of chasing a ball or climbing trees along with others, such a child will prefer to spend time alone. For example, while playing with their favorite toys, those who are older read books.
He often seems mature beyond his years due to his restraint in behavior. He can calmly sit for hours at a table with adults, listening to their conversation, without interjecting himself into the conversation, as if he understands everything.
In adolescence, the signs of this character accentuation become even brighter. His aloofness becomes more noticeable.
While his peers show active attention to the opposite sex and gather in large groups, he is still lonely and withdrawn.
He may make attempts to establish contact with someone, but too quickly becomes exhausted in the dialogue, not understanding what else to talk about if he has already asked a couple of questions.
Naturally, teenagers who have not yet matured are not able to appreciate, and to begin with, notice the uniqueness and depth of the inner world of a schizoid. This is why they often make fun of him and do not hide their hostility.
This hurts him and convinces him that loneliness is the right choice in this cruel world, full of misunderstanding and injustice.
Although it happens that such an attitude does not bother him, he is so passionate about his interests that the way of life of the other children is indifferent to him, as well as his own differences from them.
Types of Schizoid Personality Disorder
In the literature, there are two types of schizoid personality disorder, depending on the characteristics of behavior and reaction to traumatic situations: sensitive and expansive. Despite such common features as isolation, lack of emotionally charged connections, and a tendency toward introspection (self-observation), certain differences can be traced in their thinking and behavior.
Sensitive type of schizoid personality disorder
With this type of schizoid disorder, a person quickly becomes exhausted, reacts painfully to negative events and conflicts, and is very vulnerable and suspicious. The sensitive type of schizoid personality disorder is characterized by a high risk of neurotic symptoms, with sleep disturbances, mood disorders, anxiety and chronic fatigue.
Expansive type of schizoid personality disorder
With the expansive type, the schizoid shows an enviable performance in a certain type of activity; he is calculating, pragmatic and powerful, passionate about extremely valuable ideas that are not always possible to realize. The expansive type of schizoid personality disorder is characterized by workaholism and even despotic tendencies in everything that is important to him.
Hobby
Most of all, this type of accentuation loves to read. He practically never parts with his books. Moreover, he is not an “omnivore”, preferring a certain topic. Usually he is interested in history, philosophy, and some literary genres.
Chooses unique, rarely encountered hobbies. For example, he may study Sanskrit or Chinese characters, collect information about the Rurik dynasty, or engage in calligraphy and collecting photographs of Renaissance cathedrals.
In general, as you understand, the hobbies of individuals with schizoid accentuation of character according to Lichko are usually associated with intellectual work.
Although there are situations when they play sports, despite the fact that most of the time they are clumsy. Perseverance and determination help you achieve success.
So if they decide to develop physical skills, they will not stop until they succeed in realizing their plans. They mainly do swimming, gymnastics, yoga, and running.
Inner world
Children of this psychotype are very sensitive to life stimuli, both physical and emotional. They perceive touch, and the expression of strong emotional feelings towards it makes such people tense.
Growing up, a schizoid remains very sensitive. He is able to perceive the world around him and society very sensitively, highlighting the authenticity of the manifestation of feelings. Such people sense falsehood in the words of others, and their internal radar clearly detects insincerity.
Tremendous sensitivity makes the psychotype vulnerable to external stressful situations, which lead him to flee and withdraw into himself. When in a family in which a child with a schizoid psychotype is growing up, there is emotional insincerity, praise in public and constant criticism at home, the child begins to withdraw into himself. With the help of such isolation, he tries to protect himself from others towards whom he feels anger.
This psychotype can develop from infancy, when the child is often left alone. It is unlikely that anything wrong can be seen in the actions of his parents, since they wanted to make him independent, to instill this feeling in him from a young age. But, probably, they left the schizoid to his own devices early. He tries to adapt to loneliness and completely withdraws into himself, living in an inner world in which he is comfortable. As scientists have established, it is the isolation of children, their loneliness and the wrong approach to education that lead to the formation of this type of personality.
The distinctive ability of this psychotype is creativity. It is very important that the form of expression of the huge inner world is correct. Many famous artists and musicians have this type of personality, but many are schizoid and those who are capable of crimes against society.
A healthy person directs all his talents into various sciences, philosophy and spirituality, into various activities in real society. A traumatized person experiences the deepest suffering, as he does not have the opportunity to realize his enormous abilities, mainly due to feelings of fear and severe loneliness.
Minuses
Given the nuance that they are hidden and not entirely sociable, they have to live through a lot of tension during the day. After all, work or training necessarily involves being in large groups of people.
Accordingly, they have to comply with generally accepted standards. And if you can still choose the field of activity yourself in order to minimize contact with the environment, then distance learning requires the presence of certain reasons why it will be recommended by specialists.
For example, some health problems that make it impossible to attend school.
So, to cope with anxiety and tension, pressure from others, they can use alcohol. Despite the fact that they do not feel interest in it, nor do they enjoy it. They just don’t know how else to relax and endure what causes discomfort.
Alcoholism mainly manifests itself in men, since being in society helps ensure their career success and the realization of personal ambitions. Accordingly, they have to meet the expectations of loved ones and society as a whole.
There are cases of drug use. All for the same reason, as a communicative dope, and also to enhance brain function, in particular to get more vivid and unusual fantasies.
The term “schizoid” itself is often associated with the term “psychopath”. In fact, they are not identical.
Although some personality traits resemble symptoms of schizophrenia. The same retreat into a fantasy world, isolation and inability to recognize other people’s feelings and share your own.
Given the presence of difficulties with the opposite sex, disturbances in the sphere of sexual relations may be observed. Although they look quite asexual, in fact, anyone could envy their erotic fantasies.
The inability to realize excitement with a partner leads to strange behavior. For example, exhibitionists, sadists and masochists are often found among them.
Manifestations of schizoid personality disorder
Typically, personality types correlate with a certain somatotype, for example, hyperthymic - with pyknic, asthenics - with asthenic, epileptoids - with athletic, etc. Schizoid individuals are also characterized by a certain somatotype - they are usually tall, thin, with some motor awkwardness. It happens that people with schizoid personality disorder have poor facial expressions and monotonous, emotionless speech.
The essence of schizoid personality disorder is most briefly explained by the characteristics of the biological component of personality - temperament. This is a personality type in which intellectual reserves, capabilities, abilities for mental operations significantly prevail over the so-called power of the emotional sphere, when emotions are very easily evoked and quickly fade away, are weak in amplitude, and, in general, are not deep enough and varied . Therefore, a person with schizoid personality disorder gets used to constructing all his life actions, guided by his intellectual schemes. The metaphor of a drop of hot wine in a glass with ice is suitable for schizoids. This refers to slight vulnerability with external protective coldness, weak empathy, etc., as well as the desire to hide from society behind unusual, unpopular, rare hobbies - learning exotic languages, engaging in non-mainstream and little-known sports, getting involved in collecting special items, etc. It turns out that they are unlikely to form a deep emotional tender attachment, and at the same time, the idea of fanatical devotion may arise, even to the point of readiness for self-sacrifice. Apparently, the hypothesis that schizoids were selected to be Adolf Hitler’s guards is true, since they are capable of being fanatically devoted to their intellectually constructed idea and are not subject to any emotional temptations.
Some schizoids are characterized by poor eye contact, unsociability, a tendency towards an isolated lifestyle, and disregard for social norms and conventions accepted in a given region. At the same time, they painfully need praise and approval, although they do not show it.
Schizoids tend to dress eccentrically and not follow the rules of etiquette. At the same time, they adequately perceive reality, and the lack of empathy and original hobbies are manifestations of a schizoid personality disorder, and not of mental pathology.
With this constitutional anomaly, deviations from the generally accepted way of life, behavior, and hobbies are observed in all areas of activity, and therefore this can lead to personal and social disadaptation.
Schizoids are often angular, they have unnatural and unplastic motor skills, but at the same time they may exhibit precision movements in some type of activity (for example, music or jewelry).
Their passion for their own thoughts or ideas can be expressed both in the achievement of unimportant goals (collecting, studying rare languages), and in perseverance in the development of talented and valuable scientific concepts. But at the same time, people with schizoid personality disorder, as a rule, are quite indifferent to the needs of their family and friends.
Recommendations
- If your child is taciturn, avoids company and is withdrawn, do not panic and force him to be more active. Offer to take up chess, music, support his interest in science or collecting. In general, do not push him, trying to impose your ambitions and hobbies. This way you will push him away from you, convincing him that it is better to stay away from everyone in order to avoid living in tension.
- If you belong to this type of accentuation, choose a job with as little contact as possible with clients and colleagues. Don't force yourself to be more sociable.
- Read the article about emotional intelligence. Perhaps it will help you better navigate the world of feelings, listen to your feelings and notice in time changes in the mood of the people around you with whom you communicate.
Family life
Not everyone can live with such a person. After all, a schizoid is not able to take care of his family, since he himself needs care. Helplessness at home does not allow you to do housework independently.
His unpretentiousness in food is considered a positive quality, since a schizoid is more concerned about the spiritual. He doesn't pay much attention to the appearance of his loved ones.
The schizoid psychotype gives preference to people who are smart and quite intellectual, but he hates it when people pry into his soul, and therefore tries to choose a partner who shares his views on life. A kind of intermediary between him and the outside world should not distract or reproach him, and therefore very often schizoids live alone. It is loneliness that does not require performing household duties and does not distract from the development of internal fantasy.
