Schizoids on the spectrum?

Post Reply New Topic

Hello all-

I've had the question rolling around inside my skull for sometime: are Schizoids on the autistic spectrum? I ask because of two reasons.
1. Reading up on schizoid personality types, I couldn't help but at least perceive a certain resemblance to Asperger's.
2. And, the late L. Sprague De Camp, on writing biographical material on H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, had described them both as Schizoid. Since De Camp had been writing years before Asperger's was understood, let alone even known about in this country, I think Lovecraft and Howard both fit better as Aspies. Still, I have to imagine there were enough similarities between the two conditions that made De Camp draw his conclusions.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

You are referring to schizoid personality disorder correct?

Those with this disorder aren't officially on the spectrum unless of course they are formally Dx-ed with a spec disorder reported on Axis I.

Here's what the DSM-IV has to say about this:


"There may be great difficulty differentiating individuals with Schizoid PD from those with milder forms of Autistic disorder and from those with Asperger's disorder. Milder forms of Autistic Disorder and Asperger's Disorder are differentiated by more severely impaired social interaction and stereotyped behaviors and interests".

Perhaps in many, if not all, cases of both Schizoid and Schizotypal ('i've been diagnosed with the latter on four out of the five neuropsych evals i've had) PD are "shadow syndromes" of ASDs.







I really don't know if the individuals you mentioned could be legitimately Dx-ed with AS or not.

I know nothing about Robert E. Howard, but Lovecraft was certainly eccentric by the standards of "mainstreamers" and I think it's very possible that he was an Aspie.

I actually wrote a post similar to this one earlier. I feel like so many of these personality disorders are similar to and maybe even on the same sort of spectrum as autism. Someone who relplied said they all affect the frontal lobe of the brain which could explain why we feel they seem so similar.

I wonder if it is just an outdated description of AS.

Lorna put it as this in her original paper [on AS]:

I have Psychosis.

I've read somewhere that autism and schizophrenia used to get mis-diagnosed with each other a lot.

I really would not be surprised if Lovecraft were on the spectrum. After reading most of S.T. Joshi's annotations in the backs of the Penguin collections, and a lot of the stories themselves, there are way too many symptoms that stick out like a sore thumb.

I think the one that really jumped at me was one that was paraphrasing a letter where someone else had wrote that if you saw Lovecraft out in person, he would be walking, looking straight ahead, never looking at people, being too shy to talk to kids from school (something to that effect, it's been a while since I read it).

We discussed that back here: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt118974.html
I was also once diagnosed as schizoid. But in my opinion that diagnosis is wrong in my case. I think I have AS.

An article of Wolff about the relation between the two conditions:

http://books.google.pt/books?id=ovvD0Zu ... &q&f=false

My doubt is if there is any utility in differentiating between the two.

There is some utility in differentiating between people who have an impairment in social skills and people who have very low social desire (for example - social skills lessons can be very useful for the first group but useless to the second).

However, the present distinction between the two has very little to do with that - if you look to the DSM description of SPD, what you will find as criteria of differential diagnosis is "stereotyped behaviors and interests"; in the description of AS, there is a vague reference to age of onset as a differentiation criteria.

Would Psychosis count, as being a Schizoid disorder?

IIRC Schzoid was once considered to be related to schizophrenia, but isn't anymore -- they just didn't bother to change the name.

No matter what anyone anywhere might ever call whatever we have, I sure do have it!