#schizoid adaptations

[schizoidvision]

4 Reasons Schizoids With Anhedonia Can Still Have a Strong Survival Instinct

Schizoid personality disorder is a complex and multifaceted condition that contains many paradoxes. This is primarily related to the internal fragmentation of the self and inner splits between different aspects of their being. One seemingly contradictory aspect is related to why schizoid individuals who experience anhedonia can still possess such a strong survival instinct. This can be partially explained by their heightened sensitivity to safety. This article aims to explore the relationship between anhedonia, the survival instinct, and the schizoid's underlying safety sensitivity.

1. Understanding Anhedonia in Schizoids

Anhedonia, in essence, is the inability or diminished capacity to experience pleasure from activities usually found enjoyable. For the schizoid individual, this might manifest in a lack of interest in social interactions, hobbies, or even basic human experiences. With such a significant reduction in the pleasure derived from life's experiences, one might assume that the will to live or survive would be diminished. However, the schizoid dynamic is far more nuanced.

2. Schizoid Inner Pleasures

Anhedonia is related to the lack of pleasure from engaging in activities. However, because schizoids live primarily in their heads, their main source of pleasure tends to come from thinking, rather than taking action. Schizoids tend to be creative and have a rich inner world, from which they may derive a lot of pleasure. For some schizoids, pleasure is derived from being a passive observer of the world. This means that even with anhedonia, there is potential for gaining worthwhile pleasure from being in existence.

3. The Strong Survival Instinct

Despite their emotional detachment and diminished drive due to anhedonia, many schizoids exhibit a strong survival instinct. This means that survival doesn't necessarily stem from a passion for life, as experienced by many neurotypical individuals. Instead, it may be rooted in a fundamental desire for self preservation and safety. The world, as perceived through the lens of a schizoid, can often seem threatening or overwhelming. This perspective, combined with their inherent desire to avoid harm, means that survival is not just about living for external rewards, but about preserving a state of safety and true self survival. It's not merely a biological impulse, but a deeply ingrained psychological need.

4. Schizoid Safety Sensitivity and Defenses

Central to understanding the schizoid survival instinct is the concept of their underlying safety sensitivity, which may be conscious or unconscious. This sensitivity to safety isn't just about physical harm but extends to emotional and psychological well-being. Therefore, schizoids often feel a pressing need to protect their true self from the outer world. The external world, with its demands, judgments, and potential threats, is navigated with caution. Any threat to their well-guarded inner sanctuary is met with a strong defense mechanism, whether that's through withdrawal, avoidance, distancing, or masking. By avoiding negative attention, they safeguard their inner world from external threats.

Summary…

The schizoid personality with its complex thought processes, behaviors, and feelings, defies simplistic explanations. Their strong survival instinct, despite experiencing anhedonia, is a testament to the human psyche's resilience and adaptability. For the schizoid, the world is a complex puzzle of potential threats and safe havens, with survival not just being about life but about the preservation of their true self. As we seek to understand those with schizoid dynamics, it's of value to approach their experiences with empathy and open-mindedness, recognizing the depth and richness of their internal worlds and the strength it takes to navigate a world that often feels overwhelming.

Video From My YouTube Channel: The Schizoid Defense

[apothiplatonic]

i've often tried to explain why i'm friend-repulsed – what is so uniquely distressing about friendship to me, compared to other interpersonal bonds – so here's one part of it.

friendships feel distinct from other types of relationships in that they usually start without any agreements, and can be entered into without even realizing. growing up, this was frightening to me; to hear a teacher declare we had to be friends with every student in the classroom, or to be called friends with someone i was just polite or kind to. when i did see models of “people asking if they can be your friend”, it was in children's books about how rejecting them makes you a bully. there was, and is, no escape. to suddenly hear that someone considered me a friend, and that i would be an evil oath-breaker if i left them or failed to be a “good friend” or sat there and did nothing at all, was bone-chilling. i made no oath!

i'm a scrupulous person, and i was even worse as a kid, so my society's friendship norms hurt me a lot. i didn't have any cultural example of how to say “no” to “do you want to be my friend?”, no script to turn down a kind and well-intentioned request for friendship, no means of egress that didn't make me a villain. i would regularly end up in – what seemed to me – servitude to some other child, not sure how i got there but unable to leave until they lost interest in me. i felt bent to the will of one person after the other, each one oblivious to how i felt their every friendly action as suffocating, consuming, as knives carving me into an empty statue who would do what they wanted. i was given no model for negotiating a friendship contract, but always reminded that there was a contract, one that i could not see or understand or alter.

...of course, there are always unspoken rules in social interaction, and culturally-approved coercion, and awful norms around consent. but there's something about how harmless friendship is seen as, and how socially discouraged it is to deny it, that hurt me a lot. i didn't have a drive towards friendships, so my friends were decided by whichever child was pushy and domineering enough, and i assumed that was just how things worked. i never even noticed when my friends actually treated me unfairly, because all of it hurt so much that i couldn't tell the difference. until i found the apl community, i couldn't find the language or ideas to even begin to think about it!

i think in most possible worlds, i would still be aplatonic. but it's this – my own experience of friendship as an inescapable torment, tearing chunks out of myself and offering them to whoever was strong enough, while the adults around me called me “such a good friend” – that made me friend-repulsed.

[romance-incubomp3]

fellow schizoids what are some pieces of media (songs, shows, books, etc) or characters that heavily resonate with your szpd I’m curious and want recommendations even.

[waywardsalt]

drawing is difficult for me and writing is something i’m considerably better at sooooo…

written list of ideas i have for a humanoid design for bellum bc i think im finally zeroing in on something after a few uhhh years of brainstorming

(if you read this and have like. some ideas you want to share or some possible [constructive] criticisms go ahead and share them if you want)

Not actually properly humanoid; he can take on a fully human look but it isn’t his default and requires a bit more energy

Therefore, he usually lacks ears (they’re just. holes), finger or toe nails, a navel, an adam’s apple, or basically any kind of human detail that could be easily overlooked at first glance (maybe leaning into a bit uncanny?). He does have these traits when he actually puts the effort in to pass as human

The traits shared between his usual humanoid form and the more explicitly human form are: an eyepatch over his left eye (he doesn’t have a left eye or eye socket in either form. it’s like one-eyed willy in goonies), yellow hair (actually the same color as link’s), a lack of a nose (effectively like it’s been torn off, just leaving the nostril lines/openings), and a lot of large scars pretty much everywhere (some are just normal looking scars, like one across his face that looks like items from a wound that cost him his nose, while others vaguely resemble the markings on his body when he’s in demon/normal form), so either way he’s going to draw attention

In his usual form (more obviously nonhuman) his left eye is his usual black and orange eye, and he has sharp teeth, but he can switch those to appear more human if he’d like

He’s below the average height and appears to be only slightly muscular, logically more built for flexibility or with the build of a dancer, but his demonic strength remains, though his speed and flexibility is limited by the form he takes

His hair is a mess and mostly short, and if he’s in the more demonic-leaning human form, it’s usually got streaks of black (black is in there in some way, how it appears is still a wip) in all of the yellow

Clothing can vary but most commonly he chooses something loose and casual, he doesn’t particularly value his clothes and doesn’t really have anything to hide and so pick stuff that won’t drag him down or get snagged in a fight, flimsy loose clothes are good

Other times he’ll wear boots and gauntlets and gloves in a more serious context, usually opting for designs and materials similar to what he gives his phantoms, he doesn’t fully lean into the phantom-style of armor or fighting unless he needs to focus on defense, however

In either of his human forms, he’s still capable of fighting (and in his more demonic form he can use his tentacles, the come from his back), and doesn’t so much as have a fighting style as he generally just kills with whatever seems most convenient or entertaining at the time, ranging from creating a weapon for himself to use to just bashing a guy’s skull in with his bare hands

He’s very violent but can talk just fine and can be just about eloquent if he wants but usually leans into being more chaotic and acting the part of a brutal ruffian if the job can be completed using force, so a lot of the time he doesn’t even bother with looking explicitly human most of the time

He greatly prefers his demonic form and uses the human form for specific reasons, and can’t actually use it if he’s too weak

[tasteforrot]

They are continually searching for a special someone who will do for them what their parents did not, so that they can resume their interrupted emotional growth. These clients are continually searching for a reparative reparenting experience that will heal wounds left from early childhood, and belatedly supply whatever they feel they missed getting.  In Freudian terms, their issues are pre-oedipal, dyadic, and not triangulated.  That is to say, the satisfaction of the client’s needs does not depend on winning a competition with someone else for this person’s attention.  The client just wants a positive, intense one-on-one relationship who represents the primary caretaker. Although superficially the desire for this intense attachment may seem similar to the adult wish for romantic love, clients with personality adaptions want to replicate some particular aspect of an idealized parent/child relationship, not an adult romantic one.  On some level, they usually realize that it is unrealistic to expect other adults to simply reparent them in this way, so they rationalize what they need want by saying that they are looking for a mate, a friend, or a mentor - not a parent.  This desire for reparenting may be so well rationalized that these clients may be unaware of their real agenda when they enter therapy.

[scorpionatori]

I do recommend no longer human by osamu dazai but be warned for like every content warning under the sun it’s super fucked up

[schizocrow]

So BORED I would smash my head at a glass window... It's just to much apathy

Gotta feel something pleeeeease

[hauntedselves]

Splitting in Personality Disorders

Splitting is often talked about in Borderline Personality Disorder, but it’s also a feature of other PDs as well.

Splitting refers to when something triggers a switch in a person with a PD’s view of something or someone. This thing or person can be anything or anyone, from loved ones to concepts to items to themselves.

Splitting is a psychological defense against contradiction: if someone is good they can’t be bad, and vice versa. For example, because of childhood abuse, a person sees their mother (their abuser) as entirely bad and their father as entirely good. This keeps them from having to realise that their father may have been complicit in their abuse as well, and that their mother had other factors in her life (usually having been abused as well) that influenced her decision to abuse.

BPD:

In BPD, splitting is between seeing someone or thing as either all-good or all-bad. The classic example is splitting on a loved one, so that at one moment the borderline will see them as perfect, and after the split they see them as a waste of time.

Examples of splitting in BPD:

I love you / I hate you

I’m loved / I’m hated

My relationships are safe and secure / You’re going to abandon me

I want to be part of you / I can’t stand to be close to you

You are perfect / You are worthless

I’m a good, passive person / I’m bad and too angry

NPD:

In NPD, splitting happens on themselves and their self-image. They see themselves as perfect to cover up the feeling of being imperfect. When they face shame, which they are very sensitive to, they split on themselves and go into a shame/depression spiral. Or they may split on an idealised person and devalue them.

Examples of splitting in NPD:

I’m perfect / I’m worthless

You’re superior to me / I’m superior to you

I deserve everything / I deserve nothing

You admire me / You look down on me

SZPD:

In SZPD, schizoids split on their relationships between themselves and others. They fear becoming too close to people, so they withdraw and isolate themselves. They fear that, in becoming close, they’ll lose their autonomy and independence. But they also want close relationships, because it helps them feel more connected.

Examples of splitting in SZPD:

I have no human needs / I want to be human

I don’t need relationships / I want to feel close to someone

I am a slave to others / I am of no use to anyone

I’m isolated but in control / Others are in control of me

If I let myself be close to people I’ll lose myself / If I isolate I’ll lose the ability to connect

I haven’t been able to find anything on splitting in the other PDs, but I think it’d be very interesting to see if other PDs experience similar things too!

Sources:

Borderline, Narcissistic, and Schizoid Adaptions: The Pursuit of Love, Admiration, and Safety by Elinor Greenberg (2016)

@.schizotaxic’s The Superiority Complex Defence Mechanism post

[dissocialed]

I believe "depressed personality" is so ingrained in schizoid because in depression, one feels most "alone" and removed of anything else. To most people this no doubt sends them into a frenzy; they search, desperate to make sure the connections they so want are indeed still there-- but when you wish to live in a detached manner, because you experience people and their constant expectations and demands to only be tiresome, the burden of connections and the intricate webs they weave (which you hardly asked to be part of) then for you, the depressed state is the most blissful you could possibly be in. One could say the most natural. However, the unfortunate side effect is that it still requires a hefty amount of one's own energy. And life does not slow down, even if you wish to be in that place a while.

Most people rush to escape the pull of its waves. I stand at the shore awaiting to be swept from the hectics of life. It is yet another way schizoid is not adapted for coexistence with human society, even though we are quite human.

It is a paradox of paradoxes. A lonely person who cannot get lonely. A depressed person who is happiest depressed.

[schizoidvision]

7 Ways the Devaluation of the External World Impacts Schizoid Individuals

The schizoid personality is characterized by a profound detachment not only from the social sphere, but often also from the individual's own physical experiences. Schizoid individuals often devalue the external world as a multifaceted coping strategy rooted in their deep-seated need for emotional protection and preference for solitary introspection. This devaluation stems from early developmental experiences and an inherent mind-body split, leading to a disconnection from emotional experiences and a perception of the external world as emotionally unfulfilling or threatening.

By prioritizing their rich internal life and minimizing the significance of external interactions, schizoid persons protect themselves from vulnerability, maintain their divided sense of self, and mitigate the emotional impact of unmet needs and societal expectations, thereby preserving their identity and emotional equilibrium.This detachment, or devaluation of the external world, has a multitude of implications for their interpersonal relationships and life experiences. Below, we explore seven ways this devaluation manifests...

1. Emotional Disconnect

The schizoid individual often experiences a significant emotional disconnect from others. Their internal world is rich and complex, yet when it comes to sharing or understanding emotions externally, there is a barrier. Relationships thrive on emotional exchange; thus, this disconnect can lead to perceptions of aloofness or coldness, hindering the development of close bonds.

2. Preference for Solitude

Given the comfort schizoid individuals find in their own thoughts, they might prefer solitude over social interaction. This preference can be misconstrued as rejection or lack of interest in others, which can alienate friends, family, and potential partners who do not understand the intrinsic value that solitude holds for them.

3. Difficulties in Expressing Affection

For someone who devalues external experiences, the physical expression of affection can feel inauthentic or forced. This might manifest in a reluctance to engage in common gestures of intimacy such as hugging or kissing, creating a sense of distance in relationships that rely on such expressions as assurances of love and care.

4. Perceived Indifference

The schizoid person's detachment from the physical world can lead to an appearance of indifference. When one devalues their environment and the people within it, even significant events in the lives of loved ones may not elicit a strong reaction. This perceived indifference may be deeply hurtful to those who expect an empathetic response.

5. Struggle with Social Norms

Social norms dictate a certain level of engagement and responsiveness in relationships. Schizoid individuals may find these norms restrictive or nonsensical, leading to a clash between their natural inclinations and societal expectations. This struggle can cause misunderstandings and conflicts in social and professional relationships.

6. Intellectualization Over Emotional Expression

There is a tendency for schizoid personalities to intellectualize feelings rather than express them. They might offer a philosophical perspective on a situation that requires emotional support, which can be frustrating for someone looking for a more human connection.

7. Rejection of Roles and Identities

Finally, the schizoid individual's devaluation of the external world includes a rejection of the roles and identities that society imposes. This can lead to an aversion to titles like "spouse," "parent," or "employee," which come with expectations they may find constraining or inauthentic. This aversion can strain relationships that are defined by these roles.

Video From My YouTube Channel: The Divided Self: Schizoid Personality

[waterloggedsoliloquy]

i wish ppl who made ocs witb CDDs they did more than just alters. like where is the hypervigilance, the overachieving, the hypercompetent verneer and the inevitable burnout, the memory and logic leaps, the cognitive dissonance and doublethink, the depersonalization/derealization, disorganized attachment, underreaction to pain, having to reverse engineer your feelings/memories from evidence instead of knowing them implicitly, schizoid/borderline adaptions, ingratiation, self loathing, overspecialization, the loneliness the loneliness the loneliness?

[dividedego]

Schizoid reading list

Non-fiction

The Divided Self by R. D. Laing

Schizoid Phenomena, Object Relations, and the Self by Harry Guntrip

Psychoanalytic Studies of the Personality by W. Ronald D. Fairbairn

Borderline, Narcissistic, and Schizoid Adaptations: The Pursuit of Love, Admiration and Safety by Elinor Greenberg

Fiction

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

The Stranger by Albert Camus

[schizoid-culture-is]

Schizoid + ASD culture is understanding logically how relationships, social cues, and emotions work, and how to manipulate/adapt each of those to the person you're speaking to in theory, but being unable to in practice due to confusion, going 'off script', and anxiety.

– 🌞

-

[gray-gray-gray-gray]

I've been thinking of changing the way I view personality disorders by separating it into a "core" (inner world experience) and "adaptations" (behaviors) view, because the current DSM-5 model just treats it as if the adaptations are signs of the core, and I don't think that's necessarily true

Lacking empathy could be a sign of many personality disorders, but if it's because of an inner sense of superiority compensating for a deeper sense of inferiority it would be a narcissistic core, regardless of how many "narcissistic adaptations" it would present with, for example

Like if a person shuts down when presented with others' issues and becomes detached and cold when responding to it, with the inner belief/thought process that "they're detracting from me being the center of attention and admiration" and just goes quiet, you might consider that a schizoid adaptation to a narcissistic core under this approach

Though I'm just a highschool student who reads a lot with no professional training or experience or any data to back up if this would be useful in any way. It's just an idea to throw out there

[tasteforrot]

The Schizoid Era

To my mind, the “Age of the Schizoid” extends from the 1990s to the present.  It is now easy to avoid face-to-face interpersonal intimacy without appearing unsocial or odd.  Right now, the cultural field embraces the use of new technology, such as the computer and its various manifestations, which allows us to avoid direct contact with others.  Instead, it supports various types of more distant and controllable forms of intimacy, such as communication by email, texting, on-line chats, etc.  Individuals who have made Schizoid adaptions and who fear intrusion from others now have many ways of relating to others that can feel safer than face-to-face, in-person communication.  At one time, I could almost diagnose a Schizoid adaptation by the person’s unwillingness to speak with me on the phone; now even I prefer email or texting in most circumstances.  In addition, many high profile jobs now are based on either inventing new computer applications or work with existing ones - as opposed to work with other people.  This shift further supports the invisibility of those who have made Schizoid adaptations.

[phlve]

Point 5

Point 5 is known as "Ego-Stinginess". The fixation is also known as "Over-Observer".

This ego derives from the Practical Ego, which is a response to the Adaptation Instinct. The psychic poison of the Adaptation Instinct at the root of Ego-Stinge is Confusion.

Ego-stinginess experiences a sense of Alienation in the childhood relationship with siblings and/or peers.

The main ego-characteristic of this fixation is Withdrawal. The Passion which feeds this ego is Avarice. The primary defence mechanism is Isolation. Worsening of this fixation can lead to either the Schizoid or Anti-Social Personality Disorder. A secondary defence mechanism is Regression. Further worsening leads to psychosomatic illness.

Becoming fixated in the Domain of Social Interaction, there is a swing to the dichotomies of that domain. This can manifest in a positive sense as Sociability on one side, or Privacy at the other side. It can manifest in a negative sense as Meddling at one extreme or Alienation at the other extreme. These dichotomies are represented by two characters: the Busybody at one end, the Loner at the other. A sense of Hatred invades the consciousness in this domain. The stress of being fixated and imbalanced in this domain can lead to Phobias as a compensatory mechanism. The poison of this domain is Envy.

The Trap which simultaneously restricts but potentially liberates this ego is its focus on Observation. The Way of self-realisation of this ego is the Way of Enchantment, which is how we relate magically with the world.

The Holy Idea which acts as a catalyzer for the transformation of this ego is Holy Omniscience, or Divine Omniscience. This can lead to the Virtue (energy) of Detachment (Non-Attachment).

Source: The16Types