You have probably heard of schizophrenia. It appears out of nowhere and about nothing in particular, yet from the outside it is plain to see: the person is hallucinating somewhere on the astral plane. What to do about it is just as unclear, so a label gets slapped on everyone nobody understands. It is much the same with healthy people of the schizoid personality type: nobody knows what goes on “under the bonnet of their unconscious”, because they are the cleverest beings on earth, and we, “mere mortals”, have not been granted enough intelligence to fathom them.
But we are not exactly mere, so let us give their secret away. And so as not to frighten anyone with psychiatric terms that even psychiatrists do not properly understand, we shall simply call people of the schizoid type Free Spirits (as in lovers of freedom).
Do you like the series “House M.D.”? Did you smirk along with Robert Downey Jr. while watching “Iron Man”? Do you like Madonna? Were you charmed by Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman”? Oh yes, and Albert Einstein — you know him too? Then you have worked out who is meant.
Free Spirits are a mind of minds! You can see it in their most striking representatives, and they dominate the Forbes list of the richest people in the world. They make very interesting company (when they feel like it). They are highly clannish and stable in their personal relationships (once they have made their choice). All in all, the game is worth the candle, but the processing will take a great deal of work and time.
The inner world of Free Spirits is full of ideational and symbolic content, impenetrable to the uninitiated.
- They are Introverts, meaning that they know everything they need to know about themselves. Unlike the other introverts, they also think they know everything about the world around them. So proving anything to them is completely pointless: it will only put your own mental inadequacy on display
- They are in an Active life position, meaning that winning matters to them — and not by force but by wit! There are a great many rich people among the Free Spirits on the Forbes list, because money is freedom minted into coin.
- Their Ego type is Emotions. Experiences and feelings flood them, yet most of it never comes out and is never let out as emotion. Rather, the experiencing is transformed into intricate ideational-symbolic structures, and only then put on show.
At the same time Schizoid types (that is, Free Spirits) do not hold their feelings and emotions back. What is more, they see no reason to regulate them in any way. If they have decided to have a good laugh right now, they will laugh whatever the circumstances.
The basic core value of a Free Spirit is caught in a line thrown at Woody Allen’s character in the film “Deconstructing Harry”: “You have no values. With you it’s all nihilism, cynicism, sarcasm and orgasm.
Incidentally, in France a slogan like that would win you an election.” A vivid enough example of a balanced schizoid type is Dr House from the series of the same name. He has schizoid logic, the urge to be better and the urge to play. A Free Spirit is first and foremost a player, and Dr House plays non-stop. He is forever playing chess with his subordinate, forever setting his people off on something, hunting out problems and solving them in order to be better. And he is the best diagnostician in that hospital.
But what has Freedom got to do with it? There is no point questioning Free Spirits about their childhood: for them it is most likely a painful subject. See for yourself how Robert Downey Jr. reacts when a journalist asks him about his childhood:
And that is no accident. In almost every Free Spirit’s family, somewhere between the ages of four and six, something ugly happened — a loud parental divorce, sometimes going as far as domestic violence. Hence the problematic violated right of Schizoid types: the right to want. Among other things, they avoid wanting closeness — it is very painful for them. And in general they avoid their own desires in every way they can, attributing them to the people around them.
At the same time he does not like people, and makes no secret of it. Although in fact people do interest him — above all from the point of view of
“What a curious pathology! Let us study it...”
The moment he comes to respect somebody, he treats that person in a completely different way. But earning his respect is no easy matter: first you have to go through a certain collision, to measure grey matter with him in a nice intellectual slanging match
Strengths of the schizoid personality type
One of the most agreeable traits of Schizoid types is the steadiness of their preferences. If I have chosen this (a food, a line of work, a partner), then this is what I will do, eat and love. In marriage, in work and in food they are very constant.
Schizoid types nearly always have some chocolate bar on them, not necessarily a tasty one, but either high-calorie, or an energy bar, or something else again, depending on the idea. And it will be a particular set of preferences in food, too. For years on end a person may eat the same dish every day, then stop eating it altogether and never go back to it. And not because he has grown tired of it, but because the concept has changed.
For Schizoid types the body is not a body either, but an instrument. Lines like “Would you like some tea? — I wouldn’t, but my body would!” are perfectly normal coming from them.
They are also “sacks of insights”. They are capable of getting insights out of thin air. They are bound to understand something, always, and it will always be at the level of a supreme revelation. The main thing is that it is for themselves.
Schizoid types have a logic entirely of their own, which those around them often fail to follow. Chiefly because they make no attempt whatsoever to convey it to anybody. Take some complicated sine-wave graph, try writing a connected text along the line, then cross out a fifth of the text in the upper part — what is left is what a Schizoid says out loud. And that is why understanding him is impossible: thoughts flowing somewhere, no telling what he said — yet in fact it is all logical, because inside him every connection has been built.
What is more, a Schizoid sees little point in explaining his logic, which looks a great deal like snobbery:
“why explain anything to you if you won’t get it anyway — so eat what you’re given!”
And a mass of other very good qualities that give them an edge:
- Respect for other people’s boundaries.
- Cultivated refinement (respect for oneself and for the person one is talking to).
- An aristocratic bent (a select circle, high standards).
- Masters of a large house and household; managers.
- Ambitious (to be the best, to stand out), vain.
- Clannishness (my clan, my family, my home).
- Clever, well-read, inquisitive.
- A rich inner world of ideas and fantasies.
- Highly developed thinking (thoroughness, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction).
- Respect for the complex (complex problems, structures, ideas and so on).
- Ambitious, aristocratic.
Conflict traits of the schizoid personality type
To understand the problem side of Schizoid types it helps to understand their fears. Schizoid types are on the defensive almost all of the time, because their greatest fear is that none of it means anything — and their own life first and foremost. “My life has no meaning and no value” is one of their biggest fears, and to defend themselves against it they set about devaluing everything else around them. In doing so the Schizoid devalues himself as well. Sarcasm and devaluing whoever they are talking to come naturally to them. These are the types who can cast doubt on your intelligence with a single facial expression
They fence themselves off from society and set themselves against it: “truth be told, I don’t need anybody”. Schizoid types actively defend their own territory even when there is no need for it at all, when nobody is encroaching on that territory. The typical schizoid refrain: “everything will be my way”. The trouble is that, thirsting for personal freedom themselves, they deny it to those closest to them.
And as people who fear their own desires, they over-idealise their ideas. This is a defensive reaction, for the more complicated a desire, the harder it is to fulfil: “only mega-desires come true, the most important ones!” In private life it spills over into the line:
“that’s no prince of mine, just some plump fool”
That same Dr House does not go and treat just any case, he takes on only the most improbable ones. And that is why they do not like helping people simply out of the goodness of their hearts. Out of an idea, perhaps.
They defend their own territory and boundaries even when there is no call for it (“don’t push me — I know myself what to do and how”, “this is my house — clear the territory”).
What does the schizoid personality type look like from the outside?
Schizoid personalities are very mobile, rather like a little ball of energy. Motor Activity is confident, indifferent to how it looks from outside, sweeping, like a wave at sea. At the same time — especially when you watch the men — you get a sense of looseness, of hinges, as though the joints were not fixed in place. The women, by contrast, are marked by heightened mobility and grace.
Schizoid types like to dress in saturated colours, conspicuously, exclusively. And often without any regard for outside opinion — whether it suits them or not, whether it is in fashion or not. What matters to them is liking it themselves. They are introverts after all, self-assured and, on top of that, indifferent to social views.
A frequent feature in schizoid women, and a rarer one in men, is an elongated coccyx. Introverts have a more curved spine, and from X-ray images it is easy to tell whether you are looking at an introvert or an extravert.
How do you spot the schizoid personality type by speech?
Being “the cleverest people on earth”, Schizoid types are easy to recognise by their “delusions” of grandeur and omnipotence. “I have my doubts about your mental abilities” — that is the favourite game of Schizoid types. What is more, they are forever devaluing other people’s mental abilities. Do not take it at face value: since Schizoid types devalue themselves, they devalue others pre-emptively, otherwise the others might turn out to be above them.
As personalities who put freedom (a reminder: protection from closeness) above all else, schizoid personalities, on first meeting our typology, as a rule come out with one and the same line: “your theory limits me”. A great many people will hear something along these lines addressed to them:
“your rules and your ideas limit me”.
Schizoid types are constantly competing with themselves. The theme of “being the best” is not about competing with others, it is a competition with oneself.
“The only worthy opponent is myself”
And, as people who fear closeness, Schizoid types are extremely protective of their territory. It shows itself in attacks such as
- “You have violated my territory, who gave you permission? What are you doing barging in here?”
- “I know how to behave, I decide what to do and how my family is to live; in my house everything will be my way, my children will grow up the way I want them to. And anyway, it’s none of your damn business!”
- “I know how to behave, I decide what to do and how to live. In my family and in my house everything will be my way, my children will grow up the way I want them to — it’s none of your business!”
