Question.

I'm probably going to get in hot water for saying this, but here goes... After working extensively with people with personality disorders (I work in A&D rehab) it has been my experience that all PD's (myself included) have one specific trait in common: an inordinant preoccupation with self. For example, a PD may not have as much a problem with breaking a law because their focus is on what would do them the most good, not society. (This is especially true with antisocials). Those of us with SPD suffer from mental tunnel vision. We can't see beyond our selves or grasp the big picture.

i think all people have an inordinat preoccupation with ones self. emotions cloud mental tunnell vision. we are aware of everything because we dont speak in emotional language. we have to take every facial expression every gesture every word and process them on by one to construct our big picture. id say people with spd have an inordinat preoccupation with everything around them, because of where we are within it.

Good point. However, there are some people that are self-effacing. In my opinion, that is worse than being self-centered because these people often end up victims of abuse.
I respectfully disagree on one point. I don't think SPD are more in tune with their environment. I think they are more internalized. That's how it is with me anyway. Other SPDs may be different.

I think they are more internalized.

dont understand???????????????????

I think most schizoids prefer the world inside their head to the crazy or boring one they must live in.

self-ef·fac·ing (sĕlf'ĭ-fā'sĭng)
adj.



Not drawing attention to oneself; modest




i would say that fits me. I guess you can say some can become victims. but in my case. im never supprised. i see what you yourself dont see about youself long before you think about screwing me over.

Perhaps SPDs know more about human nature than most because we know our selves so well. Most Non-SPD's don't want to know what's in their head (i.e. they run from their true feelings).

Perhaps SPDs know more about human nature than most because we know our selves so well. Most Non-SPD's don't want to know what's in their head (i.e. they run from their true feelings).

i know myself very very well. i guess thats accurate. most non spd's
are at the whims of everything trying to control their emotions. most dont relize they have gone insane. to many lights and sounds.

someone else wrote:My moral standards corresponds to the law + other common norms such as keeping my place in a que etc. I can feel compassion with others, but not really empathy. For some reason I'm more compassionate with strangers. There is no problem understanding the concepts and relating to them, but I don't feel them the same way I assume others do.

yeah, i feel the same, pretty much. i keep in with convention because it means a quiet life. the same really goes for why i keep in touch with my parents: only because if i didn't they'd be constantly bugging me to find out why - it's less hassle to just deal with them as and when and be done with it.

i also feel compassion for more removed things: i feel far more upset and bothered by things like darfur, rwanda, the holocaust, soviet oppression than i ever have for my family or friends. because it's more abstract, i suppose.

Acid Crystal wrote: I can see and understand morality from a logical perspective. I understand rules like "don't kill another person", and I agree that such rules are important to the functioning and well-being of our society. However, I don't get the emotional response that other people seem to get. It doesn't bother me emotionally that someone might kill someone else, for example.

same here, also. i do a degree in politics philsophy and history so to some extent i have to understand things like morality and rules, but i find it a lot easier to understand these things without the emotional side. people who try to tell me to see morality from an inner point of view or a religious one i just don't understand because i can't understand that kind of faith or that kind of emotional investment, but if someone asks me about morality on a wide scale, i'm ok because it's a more abstract concept and not something i have to be involved in in order to agree or understand.

i agree with AC as well in that i don't feel or understand reactions to deaths: people crying and being upset and wanting to remember people just makes me feel weird. i'd rather just go "oh well, they're dead" and be done with it really.

Layered wrote:AC,
There are advantages to being aloof and slightly detached. Emotions, although important, can cloud judgement. I think the key is balance. Too much rain brings a flood, not enough brings a drought. None-the-less, there is a place in this world for us.

I agree with you, but I certainly have not found that place (or niche, as I prefer to call it) in society. While there are some advantages to being schizoid (clearer judgement as you mentioned, etc)...it is definitely not a trait I would have taken if I had a choice. I could be mistaken, but most people appear to be enjoying life overall even if they have their normal ups and downs, whereas I literally ask myself every day, what is the point of living? Because there is nothing. Not sadness, not depression...just emptiness.

Layered wrote:Good point. However, there are some people that are self-effacing. In my opinion, that is worse than being self-centered because these people often end up victims of abuse.

I don't think they are mutually exclusive - I would describe myself as both self-centered and self-effacing (though I didn't know what that meant until prot posted the definition).

Layered wrote:I respectfully disagree on one point. I don't think SPD are more in tune with their environment. I think they are more internalized. That's how it is with me anyway. Other SPDs may be different.

Do you identify with the "observer" role that most schizoids seem to feel? I don't think I see more or less than other people, I see different stuff. Some things are hard to see unless you experience it yourself - other things are easier to spot from the sideline, and are often missed by those emersed in them. I wish I could give a more concrete example.

AC

I agree. No matter what perspective from which you're viewing life, there is somethong gained and something lost. It seems that being schizoid means trading in 6 of one thing for half-a-dozen of another. I definitely feel like the outsider looking in, always have. This was a very lonely place to be as a teenager, but now I seem immune to lonliness.