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‘Schizoid’ personality and antisocial conduct: a retrospective case note study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Sula Wolff  and
Ann Cull
Sula Wolff*
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Edinburgh
Ann Cull
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Edinburgh
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Sula Wolff, University Department of Psychiatry, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Park, Edinburgh EH10 5HF.
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Synopsis

A retrospective case note analysis for 30 boys diagnosed as having a ‘schizoid’ personality disorder (Asperger's syndrome) in childhood, and for 30 matched clinic attenders (with systematic follow-up data for 19 matched pairs), showed the incidence of antisocial conduct to be the same in the two groups. However, the ‘schizoid’ boys stole less often and had fewer alcohol problems. In this group antisocial conduct was less related to family disruption and social disadvantage, and more to an unusual fantasy life. Clinical descriptions of a series of ‘schizoid’ boys and girls with conspicuous antisocial conduct follow. They suggest that characteristic patterns of antisocial conduct in such children are persistent expressions of hostility and, especially in girls, pathological lying, for which environmental circumstances provide no explanation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , August 1986 , pp. 677 - 687
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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