A patient shows a longstanding pattern of social oddness. Before revealing the answer, decide how you would explore whether this is schizotypal personality disorder.

Ask about the patient's capacity for relationships, since schizotypal personality disorder involves some retained capacity to feel involved in the world and to form relationships, rather than a uniform, stable detachment. Ask specifically about fluctuating episodes of feeling detached from the world, including experiences described as depersonalisation, during which the person may withdraw further, and note any odd or eccentric communication and inappropriate affect occurring during these episodes. Screen carefully for ideas of reference, odd or unusual beliefs, magical thinking, and suspiciousness, while establishing that these remain short of true delusion and short of a formal thought disorder or true psychosis, since crossing that threshold would instead point toward schizophrenia itself.