Individuals
who match this personality disorder type have social deficits, marked by
discomfort with and reduced capacity for interpersonal relationships;
eccentricities of appearance and behavior, and cognitive and perceptual
distortions. They have few close friends or relationships. They are anxious in
social situations (even when they have the time to become familiar with the
situation), feel like outcasts or outsiders, find it difficult to feel
connected to others, and are suspicious of others’ motivations, including their
spouse, colleagues, and friends.
Individuals
with this type are eccentric, odd, or peculiar in appearance or manner (e.g.,
grooming, hygiene, posture, and/or eye contact are strange or unusual). Their
speech may be vague, circumstantial, metaphorical, overelaborate, impoverished,
overly concrete, or stereotyped. Individuals with this type experience a
limited or constricted range of emotions, and are inhibited in their expression
of emotions. They may appear detached and indifferent to other’s reactions,
despite internal distress at being “set apart.”
Odd
beliefs influence their behavior, such as beliefs in superstition, clairvoyance,
or telepathy. Their perception of reality can become further impaired, often
under stress, when reasoning and perceptual processes become odd and
idiosyncratic (e.g., they may make seemingly arbitrary inferences, or see
hidden messages or special meanings in ordinary events) or quasi-psychotic,
with symptoms such as pseudo-hallucinations, sensory illusions, over-valued
ideas, mild paranoid ideation, or transient psychotic episodes. Individuals
with this personality disorder type are, however, able to “reality test”
psychotic-like symptoms and can intellectually acknowledge that they are
products of their own minds.
