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Tue 7 Nov, 2006 04:45 am
A Return to the Self
Uses of solitude?-valuable resource when changes of mental attitude are required?-solitude can be as therapeutic as emotional support from a friend.
Our way of thinking about life and ourselves is so habitual that it takes time and effort to change attitudes?-people find it difficult to make changes in attitude but solitude and perhaps changes in environment facilitate changes in attitude because habit is fortified by external environment?-religion is well aware of these facts?-only through experience of change in environment can one know if such change will facilitate change in attitude?-one needs not just solitude but one needs to be able to sink roots into some replenishing philosophy also.
Solitude is not to subject oneself to sensor deprivation, which can lead to hallucinations. One needs the stimulation of the senses and the intellect.
Imagination?-solitude can facilitate the growth of imagination?-imagination has given humans flexibility but has robbed her of contentment?-our non-human ancestors are governed by pre-programmed patterns-- these preprogrammed patterns have inhibited growth when the environment changes?-humans are governed primarily by learning and transmission of culture from generation to generation and is thus more able to adapt?-for humans so little is predetermined by nature and so much is dependent upon learning?-happiness, the contentment with the status quo is only a fleeting feeling?-"divine discontent" is the gift of our nature that brings moments of ecstasy and a life time of discontent?-the present is such a fleeting part of our reality that we are almost always in the past or the future.
I think that a regular dose of solitude is very important for everyone, young and old. Does that make sense to you?
This stuff comes from reading "Solitude: A Return to the Self" by Anthony Storr. Most of this is snatches of text that is sometimes a paraphrase and sometimes a quotation.
"Solitude is not to subject oneself to sensor deprivation, which can lead to hallucinations. One needs the stimulation of the senses and the intellect."
Is solitude necessary for this?
What if solitude is a person's habit? Would they experience similar benefit from more socialization?
echi wrote:What if solitude is a person's habit? Would they experience similar benefit from more socialization?
I doubt it's as neatly reciprocal as all that. Much of this is really just a matter of personal preferences and habits. The Romantic image of the tortured artist/thinker retreating from society at large, often with a generally dishevelled appearance and assuming the posture of a misunderstood hero, is an irresistible one; it's one of the most enduring legacies of 19th-century intellectual culture, especially in philosophy.
Here is an expression one reader made to my OP on another forum.
Don't give me solitude
Because I'll have to try
To dig among my thoughts
To find a reason why.
Please busy me with work.
If there's time let me drink.
Give me philosophy
So I don't really think.
My Blackberry I need,
My cell phone and TV,
To occupy my mind.
Alone I can not be.
Inspired by coberst's thread "Return to self"
Ah... I see. Sensory deprivation is your proposal, after all!
Coberst,
I tend to agree with the expression made by your other reader.
A lot of people keep themselves very occupied with other people or technology because they simply don't want to be left alone with their
thoughts.
This might cause their thinking to run a little deep and this is too serious or too scary (especially for a lot of fellow Americans.)
Solitude is good for the soul and I believe a lot of people would benefit
from having a little more of it!
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