Solitude a Return to the Self

July 1, 1988
Storr's celebration of creative solitude is a counterbalance to the chorus of self-help books extollng interpersonal relationships. This British psychotherapist links the capacity to be alone with self-discovery and becoming aware of one's deepest needs and feelings. Taking Goya, Kafka, Trollope, Kant and others as examples, he shows that solitude, far from being a flight from interpersonal contact, is an inveterate need, at least in some people. He analyzes extroverts who become depressives by losing themselves in the outer world and argues that fantasy is not inherently escapist, as Freud contended. The Jungian process of ``individuation,'' he demonstrates, sheds light on the mature artistic forays of Beethoven, Brahms and Henry James. People need a sense of participating in a larger community than either family or friends can provide, and Storr's message is that the solitary's search for wholeness is a valid avenue to relatedness.