From here, an apparent case of Schizotypal Personality Disorder. I do not understand this disorder very well. It seems like they might have something wrong with their brains. It is much more common in close relatives of those with schizophrenia. It almost looks like a very mild form of schizophrenic illness. I’ve never had a client with this problem, I’ve never seen a case of it in my life and I would have a hard time diagnosing it.
If there is something wrong with their brains, then why call it a personality disorder? Is there any evidence that this is actually a defensive structure or personality style as opposed to more of an Axis 1 type symptom-based rather than Axis 2 core-based illness?
Although I have never seen a case of it, this case history looks remarkably like what I think it looks like. Note that this man has received two diagnoses from afar, Paranoid Schizophrenia and Schizotypal Personality Disorder. Paranoid Schizophrenia is not correct. An unmedicated full blown Paranoid Schizophrenic would not have been regularly employed for long after the onset of illness. He would not have married three times and fathered a son after the onset of illness. His behavior and attire would not remarkably improve after a woman married him and could more or less take care of him. An untreated schizophrenic would not have it together no matter how much mothering his wife gave him.
This man has never been hospitalized or diagnosed and I doubt if he has ever set foot in a clinician’s office. Part of the problem with getting types to come in is that they are so nuts and paranoid and they literally are too crazy and suspicious to come in to see a clinician. Obviously the clinician is one of the enemies who is plotting against him. This man obviously doesn’t think there is anything wrong with him, so that’s another reason why he will never show up.
I think it is quite clear that this man is not normal in any way, shape or form and he is so ill that his behavior goes way beyond eccentricity and free-sprited Bohemian creative type all the way off into serious pathology and craziness. It looks like this illness also limits his life in some pretty important ways too. But apparently he doesn’t think he has a problem. If there’s any problem, apparently it’s with other people. Which is pretty Axis 2-like right there.
My dad is very messed up. Extremely. He was abusive and traumatized my whole family.
His appearance is pretty eccentric. His hair and beard are wild and stained from cigarettes. He wears really dirty clothes covered in industrial glue or varnish from his job… in public. This all goes away if his wife (who he’s had three of) takes care of him.
He has really intense, sometimes bizarre beliefs about politics. I remember him once calling me up to talk about how his wife was “stealing his liberty.” As in, the liberty due him from the founding fathers of the US.
He’s paranoid to an extreme. He used to throw the telephone away because he thought people were listening. He thinks that people stalk him. He thinks co-workers are secretly taking nude photos of him and putting them on the internet. I can tell you he has NEVER used a computer let alone the internet… all because he’s paranoid.
He used to call me up after watching a news report about terrorism to warn me about the NYC subway I take to work everyday. I tried to reassure him by telling him my particular train is not a target because it isn’t well used. He told me that’s what, “they wanted me to think.”
He strongly dislikes most institutions: banks, universities, governments,
He has no friends at all. Never has.
He spends his time in basements or attics.
He’s very smart, but has no interest in making money to support himself.
My mom and his former wife, an LCSW, thinks he’s schizophrenic. My therapist says he sounds like schizotypal.
BUT… if you asked if he was paranoid, he’d say no. If you asked if he was eccentric, he’d say he just thinks differently from most people (with a kind of superior attitude). If you asked why he doesn’t have friends, he’d say he prefers being alone.
Regardless, anyone else can easily see that he’s really, seriously, an odd person.
Any of this make sense to people dx with schizotypal?
