Between Two Worlds: The Encapsulated Self

Abstract

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.

Life Scripts and Attachment Patterns: Theoretical Integration and Therapeutic Involvement

“…His ideas influenced a number of researchers and developmentally focused writers who further identified specific patterns of insecure attachment that were the result of repeated disruptions in dependent relationships. They refer to these insecure patterns as ambivalent, avoidant, disorganized, or isolated attachment styles (Ainsworth et al, 1978;Doctors, 2007;Main, 1995;O'Reilly-Knapp, 2001). Bowlby's theory provides an understanding of how an infant's or young child's physiological survival reactions and implicit experiential conclusions may form internal working models, the antecedents of an unconscious life script.…”

“…Isolated attachment results from a series of experiences wherein the caretakers are experienced as repeatedly neglectful, untrustworthy, and/or invasive (O'Reilly-Knapp, 2001). The child's natural dependency on parents is met with an accumulation of rhythmic misattunements and, alternately, invasive and/or neglectful caretaking.…”

Beyond Symbiosis

“…Fairbairn (1952) suggested that we must go back to ideas about hysteria (i.e., to dissociative psychopathology rather than to neurotic, superego-based psychodynamics) if we are to understand the schizoid self (i.e., the split ego) and therefore schizophrenia. Within transactional analysis, a more heuristic description of schizoid process can be found in the work of Erskine (1993, 2001), Erskine et al (2001), Little (2001), O’Reilly-Knapp (2001), and Yontef (2001).…”

Tratamiento de los Patrones Relacionales Inconscientes. El caso de Pablo: Implicación y Sintonía en Psicoterapia

“…Estos patrones relacionales incluían una variedad de manifestaciones (Andollo, en prensa; Erskine, 2015/2016): sus conclusiones implícitas ("algo está mal en mi"), la intensidad de sus afectos (miedo, ambivalencia, soledad y vergüenza), reacciones fisiológicas de supervivencia (la retroflexión en su cuerpo), anticipaciones (de rechazo y abandono), comportamientos repetitivos (como tocarse la nariz), su crítica interna, su apego aislado (Erskine, 2011;O'Reilly-Knapp, 2001, 2012, su aislamiento y el proceso esquizoide (O'Reilly-Knapp, 2001, 2012 que mostraba en la terapia y en otras relaciones.…”