Comparison of Schizotypal Personality Style and Disorder


Personality Style

Personality Disorder

Tend to be tuned into and sustained by their own feelings and belief affects
Have ideas of reference; suspicious or paranoid ideation; inappropriate or constricted affect
Are keenly observant of others and particularly sensitive to how others react to them
Have excessive society anxiety, e.g., extreme discomfort in social situations involving unfamiliar people
Tend to be drawn to abstract and speculative thinking
Have odd beliefs or magical thinking that influences behavior and is inconsistent with subculture norms, e.g., superstition, belief in clairvoyance, telepathy, or a "sixth sense," and that others can feel their feelings
Are receptive to and interested in the occult, the extrasensory, and the supernatural
Have unusual perceptual experiences, e.g., illusions, sensing the presence of a force or person not actually there (e.g., "I felt as if my dead mother were in the room with me")
Tend to be indifferent to social convention, and have interesting and unusual life-styles
Are odd or eccentric in behavior or appearance, e.g., unkempt, unusual mannerisms, talk to self; odd speech (without loosening of association) or incoherent, e.g., speech that is impoverished, digressive, vague, or inappropriately abstract
Usually are self-directed and independent, requiring few close relationships
Have no close friends or confidants (or only one) other than first-degree relatives

Source: Handbook of Diagnosis and Treatment of DSM-IV Personality Disorders, by Len Sperry, M.D., Ph.D.