[Schizoid versus hysterical personality structure. III: Origin and severity of neurosis]

Compared to the hysterical structure, the following characteristics are more frequent in schizoids: they are illegitimate, are born late after several siblings and are quiet and shy as children. The mother is irascible, the father aloof; on the other hand, the parental combination "mother and father affectionate" is more common. The father is often absent in early childhood, and there is the additional stress caused by changes of residence. In their earliest childhood memory, the mother and father are named as central reference persons. According to the impairment score, the schizoids are more severely disturbed. In contrast, hysterical patients have young mothers that taboo sexuality and irascible fathers; they criticize the mothers more and also idealize the father. The hysterically structured individual is an only child or has few siblings. As children, these patients are well-behaved, lively, athletic, have many friends, fight and compete with siblings. In their earliest childhood memory, they name other adults--not family members--and topics centering on possession and contact. Their childhood is affected by stress arising from the death of the father and other close reference persons as well as from flight experiences. The results make it possible to describe a markedly different line of development in the structure groups and a greater degree of stress due to various risk factors in the schizoids.