2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43
Harry Guntrip describes the schizoid pattern as an "entry-exit program": a person is present in a relationship, then suddenly disappears from them.
“The chronic dilemma of the schizoid individual, who cannot be neither in a relationship with another person, nor outside of such a relationship, without the risk of losing his object or himself in one way or another, is due to the fact that he has not yet got rid of a special type of dependence on objects of love, which characteristic of infancy. It has two distinct but obviously interrelated aspects: identification and the desire to incorporate. Identification is passive, incorporation is active. Identification is associated with the fear of being swallowed by another person, incorporation - with the desire to swallow the object itself. Identification presupposes regression to being in the womb, and incorporative impulses belong to the postnatal period - a baby sucking at the breast”(1, p. 16)
People with a schizoid personality structure are concerned about the dangers of being consumed, trapped, controlled, trapped, and traumatized - a danger they associate with interpersonal relationships. They can behave markedly detached or behave in a socially acceptable way, while paying much more attention to their inner world, and not to the world of the living people around them. When contacting people with a schizoid structure of character, one gets the impression that they are not completely "in the body." Researchers, when describing the schizoid character structure, usually use phrases such as "outside the body" or "not all here." When we come into contact with the owner of the schizoid structure of character, we feel his separation or departure. This impression is reinforced by empty eyes, a mask-like face, a rigid body, and a lack of spontaneity. A schizoid person at the level of consciousness understands the environment, but at the emotional and bodily level he does not come into contact with the situation.
Guntrip points out that the life of such people passes in a change of habitat, clothes, work, hobbies, friends, occupations and marriages, but they are not able to create stable relationships, always needing love and at the same time being afraid of the binding bonds. This same conflict explains the tendency of engaged or married couples to imagine or feel affection for someone else, as if they want to be free in their feelings, at least in fantasies: "I want love, but I should not be possessed." …
Guntrip described traits that characterize the schizoid personalitymost fully:
(1) Introversion. The schizoid is cut off from the world of external reality in an emotional sense. All his libidinal desires are directed towards inner objects, and he lives an intense inner life, often displaying an amazing richness of fantasy; although for the most part this varied life of the imagination is hidden from everyone, often even from the schizoid himself. His ego is split. However, the barrier between conscious and unconscious can be very thin, and the world of internal objects and connections can easily break into consciousness and dominate there. Even deeper than this level of "internal objects" lies the primary state of "return to the womb."
(2) Alienated withdrawal from the outside world is the flip side of introversion.
(3) Narcissism is a characteristic feature because the schizoid leads a predominantly internal life. All his objects of love are within him, and, moreover, he largely identifies with them, so that his libidinal attachments seem to relate to himself. These lead to the fourth schizoid trait.
(4) Self-sufficiency. Introverted, narcissistic self-sufficiency, in which all emotional connections are carried out in the inner world, saves from the anxiety that flares up in relationships with real people. Self-sufficiency, or an attempt to do without external connections, is obvious in this case. The young woman talked a lot about the desire to have a child, and then she dreamed that she had her own child, given by her mother. But since she often identified herself with children, this dream showed that she, as a child, is inside the mother. She wanted to restore a situation of self-sufficiency in which she was both mother and child. She said: “Yes, I always thought about it when I was a child. It gave me a sense of security. Everything here was under my control, there was no uncertainty. Taking such a position, she could do without her husband and be completely self-sufficient.
(5) Feelings of superiority naturally stem from self-sufficiency. A person does not feel the need for other people, he can do without them. It over-compensates for deep-rooted dependence on people, which leads to feelings of inferiority, smallness and weakness. But this is often associated with a feeling of "otherness", separation from other people.
(6) Loss of affect in external situations is an inevitable part of the whole picture. A man in his fifties says: “It is difficult for me to be with my mother. I should have been more attentive to her. I never pay attention to what she says. I don't feel strong affection for anyone. I am cold with everyone who is near me and dear to me. When my wife and I have sex, she usually asks, "Do you love me?" To which I answer: "Of course, I love you, but sex is not love, but just an experience." I could never understand why it upsets her. " Feelings were even excluded from his sexual sphere, which one patient called "a pulsating biological urge that seems to have little to do with my self." As a result of this "insensibility", schizoid people can be cynical, heartless and cruel, not understanding how they offend other people.
(7) Loneliness is the inevitable result of schizoid introversion and the termination of external relationships. It manifests itself in an intense desire for friendship and love, which repeatedly breaks out. Loneliness among the crowd is the experience of the schizoid of his cut off from affective rapport.
(8) Depersonalization, loss of a sense of identity and individuality, loss of oneself undoubtedly gives rise to serious dangers. Derealization of the outside world is also involved here. For example, one patient claims that the greatest fear she ever experienced was associated with an experience that she believed to be from the age of two: “For a while, I lost the perception of myself as a separate entity. I was afraid to glance at anything; I was afraid to touch anything, as if I were not fixing the touch. I couldn't believe that I was doing anything, unless it was done mechanically. I perceived everything around me in an unrealistic way. Everything around me seemed extremely dangerous. While this state lasted, I was terrified. All my life after this experience, I said to myself from time to time: "I am me."
(9) Regression. It is connected with the fact that the schizoid feels suppressed by the outside world and fights against it inside himself, trying to "retreat" back to the safety of the uterus (1, p. 23).
Schizoid people may feel intense longing for close relationships and fantasize a lot about emotional and sexual intimacy with another person. While such people may appear to be very content with their solitary lives, they can often have a real craving for closeness hidden behind their protective uncommunicativeness.
Guntrip. G. Schizoid phenomena
Lowen A. Body betrayal
McWilliams N. Psychoanalytic Diagnostics
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