of his faculties,” or oppositely, we say that he has “lost possession of himself.” Possession in this sense refers, of course, to the control of the ego over the instinctual forces of the body. When possession is lost, these forces are out of ego control. In the psychotic individual the ego has disintegrated to a point where it can be compared to a state of anarchy in which one doesn't know what is going on and is terrified because of it. On the other hand, the loss of control which occurs in a hysterical outburst can be compared to a riot. One knows that ego authority will soon be restored and the rioting emotions brought under control. Self-possession can be gauged by the person's ability to respond appropriately to his life situations. The schizophrenic lacks this ability completely. The schizoid individual is handicapped in his responsiveness by the rigidity of his body.
THE SCHIZOID MASK
The first feature which strikes the observer as odd about the appearance of the schizophrenic or schizoid individual is the look of his eyes. His eyes have been described as “off,” “blank,” “vacant,” “out of touch,” etc. This expression is so characteristic that it alone can be used to diagnose the presence of schizophrenia. It has been commented on by a number of writers. Wilhelm Reich, for instance, says that both the schizoid and schizophrenic personalities “have a typical faraway look of remoteness…. It seems as if the psychotic looks right through you with an absent-minded but deep look into far distances.”19 This special look is not always present. At other times, the eyes just look vacant. Reich observed that when emotions well up in the schizophrenic, his eyes “‘go off,’ as it were.”
Silvano Arieti refers to an “odd look or expression in their eyes,” which he credits to many observers. He himself describes a retraction of the upper lid that produces a widening of the eyes. He relates it to the common expression in schizophrenics of “bewilderment and withdrawal.” Arieti also comments on a so-called look of “madness” that he attributes to the lack in some schizophrenic eyes of normal convergence and constriction.20 I believe this look is an expression of terror that can be interpreted as madness because it is unrelated to any known cause. Most commonly, one sees either the “faraway” look Reich describes or an expression of fear and bewilderment. The common denominator in all cases, however, is the inability of the schizophrenic to focus his eyes with feeling upon another person. His eyes may be wide with fear, but he does not look at you with fear; they may be full of rage, but it is not directed at you. You are uneasy in his presence because you sense an impersonal force in him that could break out and shatter you without acknowledging your existence.
One of my patients, whose eyes became glassy as he went into a catatonic state, told me later that he saw everything that took place.
Though he appeared to be “gone,” he saw my hand as I waved it before him. The mechanical function of vision was intact; light entering his eyes impressed his retina in the same way it acts on the sensitive film of a camera. When the patient came out of his catatonic state his eyes lost their glassy quality and resumed a more normal appearance. This patient's catatonic experience developed after an exercise of striking the couch with his fists while saying, “No!” The exercise evoked feelings that the patient couldn't handle and to which he reacted by “going dead.” His apparent deadness was a defense against his feelings of rage. He suppressed this rage by withdrawing from almost all contact with the external world; the withdrawal produced the glassiness of his eyes.
The subjective impression that the schizoid is unable to make contact with your eyes is the most disturbing aspect of his appearance. You do not feel that he looks at you or that his eyes touch you, but that he stares at you with seeing but unfeeling eyes. On the other hand, when his eyes focus on you, you can sense the feeling in them; it is as if they touch you.
Ortega y Gasset makes an interesting analysis of the function of vision in his essay, “Point of View in the Arts.” He notes:
Proximate vision has a tactile quality. What mysterious resonance of touch is preserved by sight when it converges on a nearby object? We shall not now attempt to violate this mystery. It is enough that we recognize this quasi-tactile density possessed by the ocular ray, and which permits it, in effect, to embrace, to touch the earthen jar. As the object is withdrawn, sight loses its tactile power and gradually becomes pure vision.21
Another way of describing the disturbance in the schizophrenic's eyes is to say that he “sees but does not look.” The difference between seeing and looking is the difference between passivity and activity. Seeing is a passive function. According to Webster's New International Dictionary, seeing refers to the faculty of vision “where the element of attention is not emphasized.” To look, on the other hand, is defined in this dictionary as “to direct the eyes or vision with a certain manner, purpose or feeling.” Because the schizophrenic cannot direct his vision with feeling, he lacks the full possession of this faculty or the normal control of this bodily function. His self-possession is limited.
We look at people's eyes to learn what they feel or to sense their response to us. Are they happy or sad, angry or amused, frightened or relaxed? Because the schizoid's eyes tell no story, we know he has repressed all feeling. In treating these patients I pay very close attention to their eyes. When I reach them emotionally, that is, when they respond to me as a human being, their eyes light up and come into focus. This also happens spontaneously when a patient gains more feeling in his body as a result of therapy. The color of his eyes becomes more vivid, and they look more alive. The blankness or emptiness of the eyes is thus an expression of the relative unaliveness of the total personality. The responsiveness or lack of it in the eyes of the schizoid patient gives me a clearer indication of what is going on with him than any verbal communication. More than any other single sign, the expression in the eyes of a person indicates to what extent he is in “possession of his faculties.”
Everyone senses that the eyes reveal many aspects of the personality. The eyes of a zealot burn with the fire of fanaticism, and the eyes of a lover glow with the warmth of his feeling. The brightness of a child's eyes reflects his interest in the world; the dullness which may appear in the eyes of old people indicates that this interest has waned. The eyes are windows of the body. Though they do not necessarily reveal what a person is thinking, they always show what he is feeling. Like windows, they can be shuttered or open, glazed or clear.
If parents, educators, and physicians would look (direct their vision with feeling) at children's eyes, the tragedy of the schizoid child who is not understood could be partly avoided.
The schizoid's inability to focus stems from his anxiety about the feelings which would come through in his eyes. He is afraid to let his eyes actively express fear or anger because this would make him conscious of these feelings. To look with feeling is to be aware of the feeling. The suppression of the feeling requires that the eyes be kept vacant, or distant. The lack of expression in the eyes, like the lack of responsiveness in the body, is part of the schizoid defense against feeling. However, when the feelings break through the defense and inundate the ego, the eyes “go off,” as Reich pointed out, or the fear and rage may pour through them chaotically, without focus and direction, as in the case of the schizophrenic girl in my office. Thus, when eyes have either the “far-off’ look or a look of wild, undirected rage or terror they denote schizophrenia. Vacant and distant eyes indicate a schizoid state.
When one moves from the eyes to the total expression of the face, other signs of the schizoid disturbance are seen. The most important is an absence of facial expression, similar to the lack of feeling in the eyes. It has been said that the schizoid face has a mask-like quality. It lacks the normal play of feeling that makes the healthy face look alive. The mask takes several forms: it may show the bewilderment of the clown, the naive innocence of the child, the knowing look of the sophisticate, the haughtiness of the aristocrat. Its characteristic feature is a “fixed” smile, in which the eyes do not participate. This typical schizoid smile can be recognized by (1) its unvarying quality, (2) its lack of appropriateness, (3) its unrelatedness to a feeling of
