‘Schizoid’ literally means ‘like Schizophrenia’. People with Schizoid Personality Disorder (SPD) have Schizophrenia-like symptoms except for psychotic symptoms like hallucinations.
People with SPD have limited emotional expression, are socially withdrawn, and have no interest in forming close relationships. They come across as indifferent and seem okay with being on their own.
Even if they, deep down, want to connect, they can’t because they barely show any emotions.
A lack of emotional expression always points to a weak sense of self. Schizoids are unsure of who they are and find it difficult to express themselves.
Schizoids have a split mind in that they experience a divide between themselves and the world. They also experience a divide between themselves and their emotions.
What causes SPD?
Childhood trauma likely contributes to the development of SPD. Schizoids fail to develop a stable identity during their psychosocial development. Trauma likely made them dissociate from their emotions, and they carry this coping mechanism into adulthood.
In the words of R.D. Laing, they are living in a permanently dissociated state.
They also have a split mind in that they divide the world and people into two categories- safe and unsafe. To them, it’s unsafe to be in relationships.
Taking the Schizoid Personality Disorder test
This test consists of 15 items on a 5-point scale ranging from Strongly agree to Strongly disagree. This self-test is not meant to be a diagnosis but reveals the likelihood of having SPD.
Your results are only shown to you; we don’t store them in our database.
