I’ve talked about myself as a possible “schizoid” here
before, and also as a possible “aspie” (Asperger’s). The manifestation may be similar, but the “schizoid”
is more about manifestation of behavior (a lack of emotional empathy for people
with a preference for solitary activities) where as Asperger’s (as part of the
autism spectrum) is more about neurological development with emphasis on
organic physiology.
I found a forum that makes a useful distinction
between a “solitary personality” and a “schizoid personality”. The “solitary personality” seeks freedom and
feels emotion in generic ways (toward art and music, and work) and cares about
people in an “intellectual” way. That
isn’t necessarily pathological. The “schizoid”
is seen as not feeling anything at all, which is sometimes a symptom of those
who have been bullied (as in the film “Bully”, Movies blog, April 14, 2012).
The solitary person is seen as non-controversial, as
long as he is not bothering anyone. Yet
many people’s whole sense of meaning seems to depend on the idea that others
must belong to his world, it seems.
Update: March 5
There was this story on NBC Nightly News ("Making a Difference") last night about a woman, Charlotte Tidwell, in Forth Smith. Arkansas who sacrifices all of her pensions to feed others (the story says 14% of the nation's population has food problems -- is this enough food, or the wrong food -- diabetes and obesity?) The video link is here (and unfortunately, the embed link plays the wrong video, the one about Hillary's emails).
Yet I would not find any "emotion" in this. It couldn't be my own "purpose." It might be a duty. My "emotional body" is not there. My history of rationalizations about "personal responsibility" is too long. But when I was working in my mainline career, I rationalized that I was "paying my dues" with unpaid emergency overtime.
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