Solitude: A Return to Self. Anthony Storr.

Solitude: A Return to Self
Anthony Storr
New York: Quality Paperback Book Club. 1988.

Why read it? An in-depth analysis of the nature and uses of solitude. Interesting anecdotes. However, the author concludes that happiness comes from both personal interrelationships and solitude. Took a whole book to arrive at what appears to be plain common sense.

Some sample ideas from the book: “It is widely believed that interpersonal relationships of an intimate kind are the chief, if not the only source, of human happiness; yet, the lives of creative individuals often seem to run counter to this assumption. Modern psychotherapists have taken as their criterion of emotional maturity the capacity of the individual to make mature relationships on equal terms.”

“The capacity to be alone … becomes linked with self-discovery and self-realization with becoming aware of one’s deepest needs, feelings and impulses. Thinking can be regarded as a preliminary to action: a scanning of possibilities, a linking of concepts, a reviewing of possible strategies.”

“The capacity to be alone is a valuable resource when changes of mental attitude are required; after major alterations in circumstances; fundamental reappraisal of the significance and meaning of existence may be needed. We prize stoicism; the sufferer who says nothing about his feelings is saving his fellows embarrassment. That solitude promotes insight as well as change has been recognized by the great religious leaders, who have usually retreated from the world before returning to it to share what has been revealed to them. Contemporary Western culture makes the peace of solitude difficult to attain. What Admiral Byrd is describing is a mystical experience of unity with the universe. William James: The overcoming of all the usual barriers between the individual and the Absolute is the great mystic achievement; in mystic states we both become one with the Absolute and we become aware of our oneness.”

“Even the closest relationship is bound to have flaws and disadvantages, and it is often because people do not accept this that they are more unhappy than they need to be; if it is accepted that no relationship is ever ideal, it makes it easier to understand why men and women need other sources of fulfillment; everyone needs some human relationships; but everyone also needs some kind of fulfillment which is relevant to himself alone.”

Quote: “The effects of solitude can be damaging or rewarding according to circumstances.”

Quote: “The old often show less interest in interpersonal relationships, are more content to be alone, and become more preoccupied with their own, internal concerns.”

Quote: “Accounts of the creative process given by men and women of genius: the greater number of new ideas occur during a state of reverie, intermediate between waking and sleeping; a state of mind in which ideas and images are allowed to appear and take their course spontaneously; the creator needs to be able to be passive, to let things happen within the mind.”