I agree with that on many of the DSM conditions but if there's a mechanism behind a disorder that can make it arise, it could also be useful in undoing the damage when figured out. Some conditions are very real and I think the focus should be to weed out the ones from the psychiatry manuals that qualify more as personality traits and stop medicating those people for nothing. Maybe those things need a school of their own outside psychiatry.
There are things scientific medicine doesn't take into account, things that can't be quantified at least yet. I would guess it's just a property of using the scientific method. As more is understood about the brain, psyche and consciousness, things will improve. I used to wonder why quack stuff like homeopathy is so popular until I saw clips of people going to the clinics. They just wanted to talk about themselves and have someone listen to their problems for more than 15 minutes. That's not selfish, it's just a basic human need. They often even claim the placebo helps with whatever it was given for and the sincerity of the person doing the treatment seems to have some effect. If that could be incorporated into the visit at a normal clinic the experience might work for more people. Doctors just care about the facts, as it should be in any science but when dealing with people it's not that simple. It seems cold and distant to sensitive people, like being schizoid does. Don't get me wrong, I still think homeopathy is bullshit.
Science is constantly developing with technology and I have total confidence we will eventually understand most if not all of these disorders or whatever they should be called. The progress actually seems to be accelerating. I'll admit this is coming from someone who agrees with a lot of transhumanist ideology but I think there's a real point to it beyond all that almost religious technological singularity/posthuman era stuff. If we don't destroy ourselves with it, our understanding (like technology and science) will take us further as a race and among other things help people better deal with things like you see at TDS.
Most of those schizoid tendencies can also arise as a result of other problems. I've spent my adult life fighting a combo of instantly changing moods, unbelievably stupid impulses, uncontrollable rage that pops up out of the blue and in general things that ensure bad stuff will always occasionally happen when the variables are in the right position. I can't describe how hard it is to consciously try to control that stuff and often it fails when you have no clue why it happens. Ever since benzos started producing paradoxical effects after many years of abuse, I haven't been able to control bursts of anger anymore, even off drugs. Which is just to say it's probably my own fault. Combined with everything else that has made it impossible for me to have any kind of deep relationship with women. I will eventually lose my temper for the smallest reason and act in a way I would never want to act towards that person. Petty, manipulative, dramatic. Like a little kid. I've never hit a woman, I run out of the house before it gets that far. Eventually it happens too many times and there's no going back after that. I don't want to be angry at all, I just can't help it. It's a shitty thing for anyone who feels remorse and has an entirely non-aggressive conscious view. My last relationship lasted 3 years and it was hell for a long time. I don't want to drag anyone through that again and have stopped pursuing any interest in women. It sucks enough to bring me to tears unless I drown it in something. In general I can't be around people more than a few hours at a time.
So while some people are naturally schizoid, some may develop similar symptoms from social exclusion due to other problems. I've even seen for myself how bad gaming addictions can change people in this direction very fast so why not other drugs as well.
From the Wikipedia entry:
"The question of whether SPD qualifies as a full personality disorder or simply as an avoidant attachment style is a contentious one. If what has been known as schizoid personality disorder is no more than an attachment style requiring more distant emotional proximity, then many of the more problematic reactions these individuals show in interpersonal situations may be partly accounted for by the social judgments commonly imposed on those with this style."
Recent acute brain chemistry is leading to looooong posts. It'll go away at some point
