People with schizotypal personality disorder tend to have odd or eccentric behavior. This behavior is usually do to paranoia or suspiciousness of others. People with schizoid personality disorder tend not to show this same kind of “strange” behavior.

According to the current DSM (DSM-5, APA, 2013), individuals with schizoid personality disorder reportedly do not desire relationships because of deficits in their capacity to relate meaningfully with others whereas individuals with avoidant personality disorder reportedly desire relationships but fear rejection, shame …

Little is known about the cause of schizoid personality disorder, but both genetics and environment are suspected to play a role. Some mental health professionals speculate that a bleak childhood where warmth and emotion were absent contributes to the development of the disorder.

People with schizoid personality disorder (SPD) are generally not interested in developing close relationships and will actively avoid them. They express little interest in intimacy, sexual or otherwise, and endeavor to spend most of their time alone. They will often, however, form close bonds with animals.

While people with schizotypal personality disorder may experience brief psychotic episodes with delusions or hallucinations, the episodes are not as frequent, prolonged or intense as in schizophrenia.

Background: Magical thinking consists of accepting the possibility that events that, according to the causal concepts of a culture, cannot have any causal relationship, but might somehow nevertheless have one. Magical thinking has been related to both obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia.

Common examples of magical thinking

• knocking on wood to prevent misfortune.
• wearing a lucky item of clothing.
• making a wish on a dandelion, wishbone, or birthday candles.
• skipping the 13th floor or room number in building design.

Magical thinking is not in itself a mental illness, but is correlated with some mental health conditions. People with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) engage in a type of magical thinking. People diagnosed with schizophrenia and delusional disorders may also experience bouts of magical thinking.

Developmental psychologist Jean Piaget first documented magical thinking in children and typically it should start to wane around the age of 10 years (give or take a couple of years either way).

Perseveration according to psychology, psychiatry, and speech-language pathology, is the repetition of a particular response (such as a word, phrase, or gesture) regardless of the absence or cessation of a stimulus. It is usually caused by a brain injury or other organic disorder.