In integrative transactional analysis, the conceptual constructs, theories, and subtheories are organized into a theory of motivation, a theory of personality, and a theory of methods. The theory of motivation examines human functioning and the need for stimuli, structure, and relationship. The theory of personality describes internal and external contact, interruptions to contact, life script, and ego function. The theory of methods emphasizes the power of a healing relationship. These theories and methods assist clinicians in understanding human beings, in normalizing the functions of psychological processes, and in healing through relationship.
This article explores the nature of the schizoid process, in which withdrawal serves to protect the individual in the face of psychological collapse. Someone who uses schizoid defenses for survival fears living in relationship and splits off from both the external world of experiences and the inner self. Caught between external and internal conflicts, the person may withdraw into autistic encapsulation, a primitive method of protection, and life is endured in a state of isolation, ambivalence, and confusion. This article considers how the schizoid condition may manifest as dissociative and autistic states, and a fourth pattern of insecure attachment is introduced. Case vignettes are used to illustrate the phenomenological experiences of the schizoid's unspoken and sequestered world and to identify how contact and the methods of inquiry, involvement, and attunement are used in an intensive therapeutic relationship.
This article presents excerpts from a roundtable discussion on the schizoid process held as part of a continuing education symposium at the August 1999 ITAA annual conference in San Francisco. Consideration is given to the importance of a number of factors in work with schizoid clients, including safety, autonomy, the therapeutic use of both physical and nonphysical touch, rage, the intersubjective nature of therapy, projective identification, understanding defensive processes, and the use of countertransference.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.