Skizotypical Personality (warning some of the psychology notes may be disturbing to some)

Schizotypal Personality A pervasive pattern of social and interpersonal deficits marked by acute discomfort with a reduced capacity for close relationships as well as by cognitive or perceptual distortions and eccentricities of behaviors beginning by early adulthood. ideas of reference (excluding delusions of reference) eg. someone talking about him or her on the subway unlikely but possible. odd beliefs or magical thinking that influences behavior and is inconsistent with subcultural norms (eg superstitiousness, belief in clairvoyance, telepathy, or sixth sense. In kids and teens bizarre fantasies preoccupations). unusual perceptual experiences including bodily illusions (eg. feels arms are moving when they are by side). Odd thinking and speech (eg vague non-circumstantial, metaphorical, over elaborate or stereotypical. Talking around the matter. suspiciousness or paranoid. inappropriate or constricted affect. Behavior or appearance that is odd, eccentric or peculiar. Lack of close friends or confidants other than first degree relations. Excessive social anxiety that does not diminish with familiarity and tends to be associated with paranoid fears rather than negative judgements about self. Case Study: Obsessive Compulsive - Story of medical student, slightly above intelligence - A - student from studying with only four to two hours of sleep and therefore became delusional. He had promised his father at his death bed to become a physician which was his father’s wish. He couldn’t manage the grades, even though he had the grades to become a pharmacist and this was encouraged by his psychologist, due to his culture and promise to his father, he felt he had to succeed and become a physician. Sadly, this person ended up on the streets downtown. Case Study: Patient assaulted child aged 12, put child’s hand on stove and made her child drink her own urine. Patient and mother: intelligent accountant, no previous disorder and well educated at a renowned university in Toronto. Had developed her own religion and scriptures. Took bits and pieces from organized religion. Her daughter was obese and mom wanted her to lose weight. Child rebelled. Mother looked at her own books and felt this was the remedy. She did not want to hurt her child. Schizoid - one in which individual has aversion of being with people (not avoidant - they are scared of being rejected) - no desire of having personal contact. Question: Could you be happy never having sexual contact with anyone? Schizoid thinks that being that close to someone is revolting. If talk to them, never make receptacle gestures. Never seem too happy/sad. On occasion may be angry. Almost never has friends except for family members. It is like they like it. It never comes to the attention of mental health professionals. This is under researched construct and identity. Prof maybe saw two or three in entire career. These people don’t even want to be in the same room. Not a typical schizoid personality - a hermit perhaps, some street people. Patient - odd appearance - dress strangely, out of fashion with flair, will dress awfully poorly wearing things that don’t match - out of style for 20 years. In a particular mental health hospital there is a tendency to have ex patients in the staff cafeteria. One was told to leave and he left picking up the branch of a tree and began smashing headlights in the parking lot. He had poor tolerance for being in the same room with anyone. You could talk to him for about five seconds. In this case study the psychologist slowly build a report with him. The patient was extremely talented as an artist. He couldn’t make a living however because he could not stand contact with people. He had lived in a refrigerator box with a pet racoon in a forested park in Toronto. He did not like the police because he was arrested for panhandling and reported that the police had beaten him up. He showed the damage to his body and his rib cage had caved. He told prof that his father would pimp him and his sister at four or five years of age and sell their services to men visiting urinals at a bus station. He said that if he ever saw his father again, he would kill him. He had only visited him mom for perhaps ten minutes.