Personogeneza personalității schizoide – o perspectivă psihodinamică

Along an evolutionary continuum, personality traits are manifested as early as childhood in patterns of emotional behavior and reactivity. Depending on the transition to normality or abnormality, specific early patterns may be noticeable. Personality disorder implies a condition that involves a series of behaviors and attitudes deviating from the normality of the individual’s cultural background. They are congruent with the content of the psyche and are self-perceived as normal, in a veritable egosyntony^(1,2).

Pathological personalities from Cluster A are known as the most severe personality disorders, with a subjective relationship to the always distorted reality^(2,3). Cluster A personality disorders reflect the odd-excentric type and includes three characteristic disorders – schizoid, schizotypal and paranoid. There are common traits of this descriptive category of disorders, most notably social aloofness and difficulties in interpersonal relationships⁽⁴⁾.

Personogenesis can evolve positively or negatively in relation to the interactions between the innate potential – reflecting genetic vulnerability –, the physical and biological factors and the psychosocial ones. The shaping of a disharmonically structured personality is more pronounced in conditions of a deficient underlying genetic background, but the external dynamics are influenced by the social support network⁽⁵⁾. The psychoanalytic perspective focuses on the evolution of personality traits in association with elements of psychopathology, the personality disorders remaining an area in which the psychodynamic approach has a notable influence, and therapeutic intervention from this perspective has proven its effectiveness^(6-8).

Although the structural dominants of pathological personalities are often obvious after the first decade of life, the actual diagnosis is formulated after the age of 18, corresponding to the confirmation of a pervasive, rigid and maladaptive pattern of manifestations in life roles⁽⁴⁾. Although stability over time is a defining criterion for pathological personality traits, demographic and age-dependent interactions were noted, with a noticeable increase in self-reported schizoid and obsessive-compulsive scores, after a dimensional analysis of personality disorders across age group⁽⁹⁾.

From the psychodynamic perspective, according to the theory of object relations, personality development is a process whose structural foundation begins in childhood. At this stage of formation, depending on the ability to internalize life experiences – lived ones and at a subjective level – come into shape the personogenetic foundations that will support the stability of self-image and interpersonal relationships. Later adaptability in coping with life events will therefore only be possible through the assimilation of essential mental capacities: the development of a balanced view of the self, the demarcation of the self from others, and the unquestionable and intact capacity to test reality. These life experiences will become internalized mental representations, progressively dominating personogenesis. The cohesion of the self, and the stable sense of self-image will define the sense of self-confidence and adaptive narcissism⁽⁶⁾. The theoretical substantiation of schizoidia, according to the theory of object relations, emphasizes the narcissistic aspect of these processes of introjection and projection. Thus, the idealized projection will determine the schizoid to develop love and admiration for the persons on whom this process is directed, while the projection of the negative parts of the self will cause him to feel the opposite. In these processes, there is a driving need to control the projected parts of the self, and therefore to control others. Therefore, the schizoid’s omnipotent vision on an interpersonal level is noticeable, with the presence of obsessional elements related to the need for control⁽¹⁰⁾.

The psychoanalytic perspective particularizes the personological underpinnings of schizoidia – inconstancy in terms of self and others representation, maintaining fragmentations of the self-representations, and the persistence of primitive defense mechanisms: repudiation, projective identification, primitive idealization –, the presence of identity diffusion and a disorganized Superego. Thus, this schizoid internalization and withdrawal are based on a marked underlying need for human contact and a poorly structured and defined self⁽¹¹⁾.

From the perspective of Bowlby’s Attachment Theory and Klein’s Object Relations Theory, in the field of personality disorders, representations of the self and of others are found in a true complementarity, bringing together unconscious and affective aspects of lived experiences⁽¹²⁾.

From an evolutionary psychodynamic and psychopathological perspective, schizoid personality disorder is characterized by a pervasive pattern of manifestations: relational indifference, corresponding to potential stress caused by social interactions or social-professional pressures. Affective flattening is associated with a lack of emotional reactions – they fail to experience feelings such as pleasure or anger –, they reflect detachment, a preference for solitude. However, these attitudes can easily go unnoticed by others⁽¹³⁾.  In order to diagnose personality disorder, the age criterion must be taken into account – although attitudinal quirks and maladaptive behaviors can be noticed early on⁽⁴⁾.

Personality traits begin to take shape in childhood, with interactions both within the family environment and later in school, academic environment and other social contexts. Thus, schizoid personality traits can be perceived early on through specific tendencies of affective-behavioral reactivity noticeable in relation to different events. During this period of progressive contact with the world around them, notions of self and others develop. Early experienced dysfunctional relational patterns lead to the internalization of disturbed representations of the self and others. They will become maladaptive attitudes and defense mechanisms and will persist in later stages of life, governing interpersonal style and reactivity⁽¹⁴⁾. The schizoid personality is structured on the child’s feeling that love for the mother will destroy her, which is why it must be inhibited and repressed, just as any other form of intimacy. Fragmentation of the Ego occurs, with lack of a comprehensive view of the self and others. Subjects will not externalize their love while protecting themselves from the love of others⁽⁶⁾. There is an inability to visualize and accept the coexistence of positive and negative aspects of those around them, which stems from childhood.

The object relations theory approaches the idea of a staged structuring of the personality, starting from the early childhood phase – each experience lived by the child will be assimilated independently, with a subjective experience of each moment, later internalized in the form of internal mental representations. Thus, negative affective experiences will be grouped separately, contradictory emotional tones being difficult to elucidate. Progressively, with the development and assimilation of certain experiential values, the child succeeds in a process of accumulating positive and negative images of others, acquiring a comprehensive view of reality and the ability to question and comparatively evaluate people and situations in life. In the same way, will be shaped the stability of the self-image and the evaluation of self in relation to others. The ability to internalize both positive and negative aspects allows for a realistic form of self-appraisal and the building of a relationship with the self. Thus, when experiencing feelings of shame, the child can access memories of times when he/she felt proud of him/herself⁽¹⁵⁾.In the case of schizoid personality, a dissociative and autistic inner world is shaped – the experience of threat, insecurity, uncertainty since the early stages of development, with the lack of an affectionate and protective parental attitude, will contribute, in the child’s vision, to the picture of a gloomy, dangerous, persistently threatening version of the objective reality. Early negative relational experiences with attachment figures and similar exposures throughout the process of growth and development will become obstacles to self-knowledge and self-experience. In this regard, parts of the self will be “encapsulated”, excluded from the field of consciousness, precisely in order to experience an apparent stability of the sense of self on a subjective level⁽¹⁶⁾. The concept of character armor was introduced by the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich as a defense mechanism in the face of stressful stimuli, either external or generated by inner conflicts. This creates coping strategies through fantasy, internalizing the fear of intimacy. The creative content of fantasy may include the theme of alternative lives or imaginary friends, precisely as an expression of that hidden desire and need for social interaction^(11,17).

In the same psychodynamic perspective, the specialized literature emphasizes the phenomenon of splitting in schizoid personality. Fairbairn elucidates the mystery of schizoid withdrawal by theorizing a delimitation between the central Ego, in contact with the outside world, and the withdrawn one in the inner microuniverse. At the same time, the withdrawn Ego is split into two descriptive instances: the libidinal Ego, reflecting the needs and desires of the child, and the antilibidinal, persecutor Ego. A resounding inner conflict is generated in a schizoid dimension that is dominated, under these circumstances, by ambiguity, nebulosity, imprecision of delimitation. Identity diffusion will perpetuate a genuine existential confusion and confusion of their own needs^(16,18-20).Last but not least, Hazell proposes the concomitant existence of a regressed Ego that accepts vulnerability associated with that feeling of fear, exhaustion and inadequacy in relation to a world for which he will not be prepared and in which he/she will not be able to live, unless there is a mental escape to calm the turbulence generated by the inner conflict^(16,20).

Autistic schizoid withdrawal manages through the process of intellectualization to create boundaries between the subjective world and the reality faced by the schizoid, becoming a main defensive mechanism. A notable implication of this phenomenon is the suppression of emotions and the decrease of emotional reactivity in this plane⁽¹³⁾. Schizoids internalize a fear of intimacy from early relational experiences that have taught them that they cannot rely on anyone and that vulnerability expressed through emotional involvement will inevitably lead to abandonment⁽²¹⁾.

The relationship with the attachment figure in childhood – the mother – is the starting point in shaping truthful, appropriate and realistic representations of the self-image and the others. A mother-child relational context based on ambivalence, ambitendency, oscillations between separations and reunions, closeness and rejection by the mother has been noted in the case of schizoid personality. The duality of mother’s cold, detached approach, in addition to parental approaches that were predominantly critical, depreciative and emotionally detached, led to the progressive development and manifestation of schizoid personality traits later in adult life^(14,22).

The image of the parent in the child’s vision will acquire a contrast, a duplicitous tinge – the tendencies of closeness and emotional dependence will be penalized, devalued, and the lack of closeness and apparent calmness and independence will be rewarded. The withdrawal into the fantasy of self-sufficiency developing leads to the belief that love is a destructive element, and it will perpetuate in governing future interpersonal relationships⁽²³⁾. The idea that schizoid individuals are uncapable to experience love – either to give it, or to receive it – by failing to provide emotional reciprocity, is rooted in maternal relational dysfunction: the lack of early fulfillment of emotional needs and the formation of such imperatively necessary connections. The child will not feel that he/she is truly loved, resulting in insecurity and fear of abandonment^(13,18).

From a biological perspective, schizoids have a genetic vulnerability – a constitutional deficit in affective resonance and related emotional experiences. Such children will have deficits in terms of closeness to their parents from the earliest stages of life, lacking the ability to internalize the relationship with the object and subsequently form appropriate mental representations of the attachment figure, as well as the ability to form a stable self-image. In this regard, the parental attitude will be shaped by a reduction in the externalization of affective experiences and in the warm expressions of closeness and care for the child. Like a vicious circle, these tendencies will be perpetuated, with a consequent limitation on the child’s exposure to genuine emotional experiences⁽¹³⁾.In a complementary manner, the schizoid will not wait and will not attempt to seek emotional support from those around them, resulting in social isolation as a defensive mechanism in the face of internal conflict – between their intrinsic desire for relationship and fear that their need for emotional connection will alienate others⁽²⁴⁾. Thus, the subject oscillates between two antithetical aspects – the appearance of compulsive self-sufficiency and the deep, unspoken desire for attachment⁽²⁵⁾. This perspective has also been theorized by Kretschmer, who sees at the heart of schizoid personality pathology the alternation between an anesthetizing and a hyper-anesthetizing affective attitude – an apparent affective detachment that overshadows the need for connection and belonging⁽²²⁾.

In essence, indifferentism and relational detachment in the schizoid is a defensive mechanism against overstimulation, invalidation, potential stigmatization, or aggressive tendencies from others. Thus, the seemingly impenetrable mask of insensitivity of schizoidia will separate this profoundly vulnerable person’s inner, subjective world from the unpredictability of external reality. Although the emotional self-sufficiency is apparent, the need for connection is profound. Interactional aloofness becomes contrasted with the hypervigilance that governs them and reflects a characteristic vulnerability. The discoloration on an affective level observed from outside is merely a delimiting framework of the so-called “protoaffection” – an overwhelming emotion that dominates the entire schizoid subjective microuniverse – he develops a purely physical distancing in an anxious attempt to reconstruct his sense of self⁽²³⁾.

In this regard, the anxiety typical of this personological pathology is determined by the imminence of annihilation and not by the negative anticipation of separation. Subjects experience, in the moments of existential crossroads, the sensation of a progressive disintegration of the surrounding world with the marked need to protect that sense of the central, authentic self, in the face of a seemingly unmitigated threat – the split⁽²³⁾.Thus, a “false self” takes shape, schizoids managing, in an intellectual way, to learn by mimicry, mechanically, the relational approach, but without the ability to experience proper emotions. The apparent appropriateness of these tendencies within interactions obscures a deep-rooted emptiness in their mental life. A comparative peculiarity lies in the similarities of schizoid personality with the “as if” personality – the attitudinal inflexibility resulted from the mechanically styled communication emphasizes self-sufficiency, but at the same time these individuals perceive others too as robots^(11,13,26).

In Kernberg’s view, the organization of the schizoid’s inner world shows similarities with the equivalent structuring in the case of borderline personality disorder – idealized or frightening images of others are assimilated and internalized, in a parallelism with a set of either shameful, inferior, minimalized, or expansive self-images. The ambiguous, contradictory, imprecisely shaped mixture is a generating point of self-image instability with identity diffusion and a subjectively perceived state of unreality – the consequence will be the triggering and perpetuation of the feeling of inner emptiness⁽²⁷⁾.

Theoretically countering the apparent self-sufficiency of the schizoid, Fairbairn postulates the self-assigning in the case of these subjects of the term “artificial”, as they feel themselves delimited from others by an “invisible window” – the processing of this perception being defined by introspection, the typical schizoid withdrawal with preoccupations for the inner world^(11,13,28).Thus, social anhedonia stands out as a distinctive trait concerning schizoidia⁽²⁹⁾.

With adolescence, when social pressures intensify and psychophysiological changes related to the process of development and progressive maturation occur concomitantly, the schizoid’s tendencies will be maintained or even amplified. In his view, getting close to another person in social interaction represents a risk of becoming subservient to the other person, of having to conform or become a victim, perhaps being psychologically invaded or assimilated by the other person. There is, however, a dual perspective, since there is also the danger of distancing – subjectively perceived as a form of disconnection or nonexistence. The teenager schizoid may oscillate between the two fears, his anxiety being generated by the possible splitting and loss of the integrity of the self⁽³⁰⁾.

If the social-emotional difficulties have been noticed since childhood, in the teenager and young adult, superficiality, social maladjustment, egocentrism, with a low emotional volume, are characteristic, all shaping the typical image of the detached in life roles and interpersonal relationships. Alexithymia is associated with a specific interpersonal style, superposable to a considerable extent with schizoid traits – individuals with alexithymia conform to social norms and avoid conflicts, and in the context of interactions, they become cold, detached and lacking empathy⁽³¹⁾.Subjects find emotional connections and interpersonal relationships futile or exhausting⁽³²⁾.On a communicative level, impersonal forms of expression predominate, but initiating verbal contact or vocabulary does not usually pose specific problems⁽¹⁷⁾.

In conclusion, the schizoid personality constitutes a particular personological model from the psychodynamic perspective, focused on the distortion of subjectivity and self-perception, maintaining the withdrawn position of a detached observer.   

Autor corespondent: Aurel Nireștean E-mail: aurelnirestean@yahoo.com

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: none declared.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT: none declared.

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