This Is My House; I Have To Protect It
Schizoid Personality Disorder in Home Alone
 
 
 
Abstract
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Schizoid personality disorder (SPD; not to be confused with Schizotypal disorder, Schizoaffective disorder, or Schizophrenia) is a mental and behavioral disorder characterized by apathy, emotional coldness, secretiveness, and a tendency towards a solitary lifestyle.
 
Home Alone is a 1990 American family comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus, about an eight-year-old boy who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to Paris for their Christmas vacation.
 
What follows are three explorations of Home Alone as an illustration of schizoid personality disorder.
 
 
 
Exploration A
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Diagnostic criteria for 301.20 Schizoid Personality Disorder 
 
A. A pervasive pattern of detachment from social relationships and a restricted range of expression of emotions in interpersonal settings, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by four (or more) of the following: 
 
(1) neither desires nor enjoys close relationships, including being part of a family 
(2) almost always chooses solitary activities 
(3) has little, if any, interest in having sexual experiences with another person 
(4) takes pleasure in few, if any, activities 
(5) lacks close friends or confidants other than first-degree relatives 
(6) appears indifferent to the praise or criticism of others 
(7) shows emotional coldness, detachment, or flattened affectivity
 
B. Does not occur exclusively during the course of Schizophrenia, a Mood Disorder With Psychotic Features, another Psychotic Disorder, or a Pervasive Developmental Disorder and is not due to the direct physiological effects of a general medical condition.
 
— Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision
 
 
 
The character Kevin McCallister <etc.>
 
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(1) neither desires nor enjoys close relationships, including being part of a family 
 
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(2) almost always chooses solitary activities 
 
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(3) has little, if any, interest in having sexual experiences with another person 
 
<obviously, this is not something we'd expect regardless. nonetheless...>
 
<No clothes on anyone! Sickening / Buzz, your girlfriend, woof>
 
<external personality is artificial>
 
(4) takes pleasure in few, if any, activities
 
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(5) lacks close friends or confidants other than first-degree relatives 
 
<The church scene>
 
(6) appears indifferent to the praise or criticism of others 
 
<the dinner scene>
 
(7) shows emotional coldness, detachment, or flattened affectivity
 
<kevin is seen watching several christmas films, or rather, staring at them blankly>
 
<Not bad acting; deliberate directoral decisions; case in point: the two screams>
 
<the santa claus scene, comparison with sarah from labyrinth>
 
<>><<>?>>
 
<Climax, moral, dénoument: No man is an island; too much self-reliance is pathological; after admitting his incompleteness and coming to terms with his guilt (or at least his regret), the family is reintroduced, and they all live happily ever after>
 
<ORRRRRRRR IS IT? The ending is a mixed bag, and to the extent that it is a happy one, it is not because kevin has become "well-adjusted" via any of the usual vectors, but because he has made the transformation from classic schizoid to secret schizoid.>
 
 
 
Exploration 2
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[screencap: buzz and whoever in paris]
<dialog including "Three reasons. A: I'm not that lucky...">
 
<Kevin's not the only schizoid in the house>
 
<?>
 
[screencap: megan and jeff arguing]
Kevin: I don't know HOW to pack a suitcase. I've never done this once in my whole life.
Jeff: Tough.
Kevin: That's what Megan said!
Megan: What did I say?
Jeff: You told Kevin "Tough".
Megan: The dope was whining about his suitcase. What was I supposed to do, shake his hand and say "congratulations, you're an idiot"?
 
<?>
 
In the opening scenes of the film, Harry is in the house disguised as a police officer. Despite being a career criminal from New York City, he is disoriented by the McCallister family's chaos.
 
[screencap: harry trying to get someone to stop and talk to him]
Harry: Pardon me, are your parents home?
Tracy: Yeah, but they don't live here.
Harry: Excuse me miss, are _your_ parents here?
Girl2: My parents live in Paris, sorry.
Harry: Hi!
Girl3: Hi
Harry: Are your parents home?
Girl3: _Yeah...?_
Harry: Do they live here?
Girl3: _No!_
 
Shortly afterward, Kevin's brother Jeff yells "Bombs away!" and throws his duffle bag down the stairs, where it lands directly at Harry's feet.
 
[screencap: fuller and his sister standing blankly in front of harry]
<harry trying to elicit a response from them>
 
"Patients with schizoid personality disorders consider themselves to be observers, rather than participants, in the world around them."
— Beck and Freeman, Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders
 
[screencap: peter shaking hands]
Peter: Hi!
Harry: Hi. Are you Mr McCallister?
Peter: Yeah.
Harry: The Mr McCallister who lives here?
Peter: Yes!
Pizza Guy: Oh good, because someone owes me $122.50.
Harry: I'd like a word with you, sir.
Peter: [smiling] Am I under arrest or something?
Harry: No no no no no. It's christmas time, there's always a lot of burgleries around the holidays. So, we're just checking the neighborhood to see if everyone's taking the proper precautions, that's all.
Peter: Oh, yeah, well, we have automatic timers for our lights, locks for our doors, that's about as well as anybody can do these days, right? Did you get some eggnog or something like that?
Buzz: C'mon dad, let's eat. [they exit]
Harry: ...eggnog? ...Hey, listen, will you be leaving—
Kevin: Pizza! Pizza!
 
Just as Kevin displays a lack of humility before God, the McCallisters collectively display a lack of respect for the police. Having no intuitive attachment to the social fabric or hierarchy of civilization, Harry's uniform means nothing to them. They don't _reject_ his (counterfeit) authority; they simply ignore it. 
 
<?>
 
[screencap: kevin's parents on the plane]
<dialog where peter explains how he doesn't feel bad about leaving the kids in coach>
 
<?>
 
<Kevin's mother is the exception>
 
 
 
Exploration D
——————
 
[screencap: the holly jolly christmas party]
"I don’t get it. I mean, right now it looks like there’s nobody home; last night, the place is jumping. Something ain’t right."
 
<?>
 
<the score>
 
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In the metaphorical reading, the moral is significantly darker and more nuanced. Kevin's mistake was not that he was too self-reliant, it was in _thinking he could trust the Murphys' house._
 
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<So did the attempted burglery really happen?>
 
<The ending revisited again; the gold tooth; the schizoid's "inner world" isn't necessarily imaginary>
 
<kevin's mother revisited, epigenetic imprinting>
 
<autism + schizophrenia hypothesis of SPD>
 
<reality check: surely john hughes didn't write the film with any of this in mind...>
 
<...yet the mapping is too detailed to be coincidental.>
 
It seems likely John Hughes had SPD and used the internal experience of his childhood as a template for Kevin's.
 
<what evidence is there that John Hughes has SPD?>
 
<quick biographical sketch; it's certainly plausible>
 
<autism + schizophrenia hypothesis of genius>
 
<is SPD even really a disorder? yes it is, and here's why:>
 
<disorder-y SPD characteristics in list form; corresponding examples from the movie>
 
— "alternately feeling empty, robot-like..."
 
<The scene where kevin almost gets hit by the van>
 
— "...and full of omnipotent, vengeful fantasies"
 
<Tormenting the pizza guy for no particularly good reason, the entire third act>
 
Stories about self-reliance typically involve the protagonist facing a series of challenges, each one requiring the skill or courage gained in the one before. But by the end of act 2, Kevin is less concerned with the extent of his means than with the ends he has already wraught. His competence seems to effortlessly expand to meet whatever challenges he faces, or even to be actively fuelled by the growing surreality.
 
<Setting the trap>
 
<Digression: poe>
 
[screencap: kevin's prayer]
<text of kevin's prayer>
 
<is this a child or a supervillain?>
 
<the shoe certainly fits in jon hughes's case: the situation of the film itself is crafted as much in the manner of an engineer as a storyteller; enumerate the complex mechanism by which the story operates>
 
 
 
Parting thoughts
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Home Alone is the highest-grossing live-action comedy film of all time.
 
<what are we to make of the film's popularity? is it just an exceptionally well-made film, are there secret schizoids lurking everywhere, or is there a schizoid aspect in all of us?>
 
<The film's relevance; SPD and the rise of the internet>
 
 
 
—Scraps—
 
 
remember italics for film titles