BODY ORGANIZATION OF A SCHIZOID PERSONALITY

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

In psychotherapy, the information that can be obtained by examining the client's body is very useful. In cases where characterological problems are carefully hidden and carefully guarded, the person is often unable to present his etiological chronicle. In such a situation, behavior and body language are the indicators that indicate the main problem with which the person is struggling.

The analysis of the bodily organization makes it possible to determine the characterological type of the client, i.e. the generalized nature of his problems and the specifics of mental life.

Therapists who pay attention to the physical dynamics of character structure say that the body responds to frustration from the environment not only with disturbances in attitudes and behavior, but also with disturbances in the body.

When a growing organism stumbles upon negativity and frustration, in order to survive, it makes attempts to inhibit or resist those impulses that, it seems to it, are responsible for this negative experience. A manifestation of such a delay in the body is a spasm of the muscles that hold back hostile urges. This kind of spasm becomes chronic and as a result can lead to significant changes in the muscles, and even in the work of internal organs.

The most common feature of the schizoid personality is the limitation of life in the body; the body movements of the schizoid personality are constrained, often mechanical and devoid of natural spontaneity and grace.

The schizoid split between thinking and feeling is literally represented by chronic tension in the neck, the area that separates the head from the torso.

There is also tension at the base of the skull associated with a characteristic block in the eye area.

I saw such a blockade in a twenty-four-year-old young man whose eyes seemed to be missing or disabled. Another young man, under the influence of life's difficulties, actually ran away from current events, and this flight was clearly visible in his eyes, which seemed to look and did not see, gave the impression of an absent gaze.

Detachment from the hostile environment can affect the spine, which in some cases bends. It should not be forgotten that there are many causes of scoliosis and that the schizoid experience is only one of them, representing the function of a stable freezing of the avoidance posture. This immobility of the body often leads to joint problems.

The disproportionality and discoordination of the body of the schizoid personality can often be observed. Such a body does not give the impression of a single whole; some part of it does not seem to correspond to the rest of the whole. Thus, the head may appear disproportionate to the body, or the shoulders may appear disproportionate to the body. There are also cases of asymmetry - the left side of the body is larger or smaller than the right side.

Often, the legs of a schizoid personality are fully extended at the knees; lack of springy gait, support under the feet.

The body of a schizoid personality looks like a lifeless headrest, which has no life at all. The general lack of life in the schizoid body is reflected in a lack, often in pallor of the body, as well as in the coldness of those areas that are in a state of chronic tension (often cold feet and hands). General weakness, physical underdevelopment, along with severe limitation of body mobility can also be an indicator of the deficit of life in the body.

Makarenko Amalia Alekseevna (psychological assistance in person (Ukraine, Kharkiv and online (all countries))