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Schizoids are loners. Given the option, they invariably pursue solitary activities or hobbies. Inevitably, they prefer mechanical or abstract tasks and jobs that require such skills. Many computer hackers, crackers, and programmers are schizoids, for instance - as are some mathematicians and theoretical physicists. Schizoids are inflexible in their reactions to changing life circumstances and developments - both adverse and opportune. Faced with stress they may disintegrate, decompensate, and experience brief psychotic episodes or a depressive illness.
Schizoids have few friends or confidants. They trust only first-degree relatives - but, even so, they maintain no close bonds or associations, not even with their immediate family.
Schizoids pretend to be indifferent to praise, criticism, disagreement, and corrective advice (though, deep inside, they are not). They are creatures of habit, frequently succumbing to rigid, predictable, and narrowly restricted routines. From the outside, the schizoid's life looks "rudderless" and adrift.
Like people with Asperger's Syndrome, schizoids fail to respond appropriately to social cues and rarely reciprocate gestures or facial expressions, such as smiles. As the DSM-IV-TR puts it, "they seem socially inept or superficial and self-absorbed". Some narcissists are also schizoids.
Sam Vaknin (
samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism
Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He served as a
columnist for Central Europe Review, Global Politician, PopMatters, eBookWeb ,
and Bellaonline, and as a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business
Correspondent. He was the editor of mental health and Central East Europe
categories in The Open Directory and Suite101. Visit Sam's Web site at
samvak.tripod.com
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