Aside from the possibility that the schizoid form of retentiveness probably contributed to
Freud’s abstraction of an anal character, it corresponds to the syndrome described by Ernst
Kretschmer, pioneer of systematic characterology. When in his study of schizophrenic patients
at his clinic he described the syndrome that he proposed to call schizoid, the following were
the main group of traits he observed to be the most frequent:
1. Unsociable, quiet, reserved, serious (humorless)
2. Timid, shy, with ne feelings, sensitive, nervous, excitable, fond of nature and books
3. Pliable, kindly, honest, indifferent, silent
Groups two and three stand in certain opposition to one another, forming a contrast
similar to that he described between depression and elation in his cyclothymic type.5 “If we
want to give a short account of the basis of the schizoid temperament,†he says, “we must say:
the schizoid temperament lies between the extremes of excitability and dullness, in the same
way that a cycloid temperament lies between the extremes of cheerfulness and sadness.â€
Both among his patients as among the bearers of what he proposed to call “schizothymicâ€
temperament (among his “normal†acquaintances), Kretschmer had the merit of pointing out
the polarity between hypersensitivity and insensitivity in this personality: sometimes it is one
or the other that is the chief characteristic, while in others an alternation or a transition from
early “hyperaesthesia†to late apathy. More generally, I think, we may say the individual is
characterized by an exaggerated vulnerability and by a self-protective distancing from his
excessively ne and vulnerable feelings. I quote Kretschmer again:
“He alone, however, has the key to the schizoid temperament who has clearly recognized
that the majority of schizoids are not either over-sensitive or cold, but they are over-sensitive
and cold at the same time, and, indeed, in quite different relational mixtures.†“Out of our
schizoid material we can form a continuous series, beginning with what I call the ‘Hölderlin
type,’ those extremely sensitive, abnormally tender, constantly wounded, mimosa-like natures,
who are “all nervesâ€- and winding up to those cold, numbed, almost lifeless ruins left by the
ravages of a severe attack of dementia praecox, who glimmer dimly in the corner of the
asylum, dull-witted as cows.â€
This polarity, Kretschmer emphasizes, is not to be found in the middle of the range. He
finds individuals like Strindberg, who said of himself: “I am hard as ice, and yet so full of
feeling that I am almost sentimental.†“But even in that half of our material, which is
primarily cold, and poor in a ective response, as soon as we come into close personal contact
with such schizoids, we find, very frequently, behind the affectless, numbed exterior, in the
innermost sanctuary, a tender personality-nucleus with the most vulnerable nervous sensitivity,
which has withdrawn into itself and lies there contorted.â€
The unsociable (or “autisticâ€) characteristic of his schizoid is something that could be
understood either in relation to hypersensitivity or to insensitivity toward others, as in the case
of those sensitive natures that “seek as far as possible to avoid and deaden all stimulation from
the outside; they close the shutters of their houses, in order to lead a dream-life, fantastic, poor
in deeds and rich in thought (Hölderlin) in the soft mulled gloom of the interior. They seek
loneliness, as Strindberg so beautifully said of himself, in order to “‘spin themselves into the
silk of their own souls’.†Kretschmer’s view on schizothymia was further elaborated by Sheldon
who endorsed Kretschmer’s threefold conception of human constitution, interpreted the
“aesthenic†body-build as “ectomorphia†(originating in the predominance of the embryonic
ectoderm), and viewed the schizoid disposition as a variable in temperament that he called
“cerebrotonia.â€6
Related to ectomorphy, “cerebrotonia†appears to express the function of exteroception,
which necessitates or involves cerebrally-mediated inhibition of both the other two primary
functions, somatotonia and viscerotonia. It also involves or leads to conscious attentionality and
thereby to substitution of symbolic ideation for immediate overt response to stimulation.
Attendant upon this latter phenomenon are the “cerebral tragedies†or hesitation, disorientation
and confusion. These appear to be the by-products of over-stimulation, which is doubtless one
consequence of an over-balanced investment in “exteroception.†Though Sheldon is more
concerned with variables than with types, it is clearly in ennea-type V that we see the highest
expression of both ectomorphic constitution and cerebrotonic traits, among which Sheldon lists
the following twenty as most distinctive:
1. Restraint in Posture and Movement, Tightness
2. Physiological Over-Response
3. Overly Fast Reactions
4. Love of Privacy
5. Mental Over-intensity, Hyper-attentionality, Apprehensiveness
6. Secretiveness of Feeling, Emotional Restraint
7. Self-conscious Motility of the Eyes and Face
8. Sociophobia
9. Inhibited Social Address
10. Resistance to Habit and Poor Routinizing
11. Agoraphobia
12. Unpredictability of Attitude
13. Vocal Restraint and General Restraint of Noise
14. Hypersensitivity to Pain
15. Poor Sleep Habits, Chronic Fatigue
16. Youthful Intentness of Manner and Appearance
17. Vertical Mental Cleavage, Introversion
18. Resistance to Alcohol and to other Depressant Drugs
19. Need of Solitude when Troubled
20. Orientation Toward the Later Periods of Life.