ABSTRACT
Divergent views of schizoid personality disorder in terms of phenomenology, diagnostic criteria, and conceptual understanding are found in the psychoanalytic literature (Akhtar, 1987; Gabbard, 2000) as well as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV) and DSM-IV—Text Revison (DSM-IV-TR) (American Psychiatric Association, 1994, 2000). Whether one views schizoid personality as a unitary phenomenon or as a more complex and inherently contradictory one depends on one's theoretical orientation, interest in descriptive versus dynamic diagnosis, and basic preference for diagnostic “lumping” versus “splitting. ” Official psychiatric classification is based on a contemporary descriptive–consensual approach, which according to the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994), seeks to reduce diagnostic uncertainty and increase the reliability and discriminatory power of psychiatric diagnosis to “enable clinicians and investigators to diagnose, communicate about, and study people with various mental disorders” (p. xi). Psychodynamic perspectives, on the other hand, have traditionally opted for a more textured or layered view of mental and personality disorders, which strives to explain the relation between surface behavioral manifestations and underlying personality structure and dynamics. For the most part, the DSM-IV tries to minimize or eliminate apparent contradictions and paradox, whereas psychodynamic diagnosis tends to embrace these as part of mental phenomena.
