## Colophon tags:: url:: https://www.economist.com/culture/2024/04/05/the-drawbacks-and-benefits-of-solitude %% title:: The drawbacks—and benefits—of solitude type:: [[clipped-note]] author:: [[@economist.com]] %% ## Notes > The drawbacks—and benefits—of solitude — [view in context](https://hyp.is/i9zwYPHgEe-kVpuxOYxHQQ/www.economist.com/culture/2024/04/05/the-drawbacks-and-benefits-of-solitude) ⬆️ date:: [[2025-02-23]] > WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, that great coiner, is given credit for the word “lonely”. Coriolanus, one of his heroes, compares going into exile to a “lonely dragon” retreating to his lair. The Roman general was talking about a physical state: someone who was lonely was simply alone. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/lKTFVvHgEe-RsvdimIUxoQ/www.economist.com/culture/2024/04/05/the-drawbacks-and-benefits-of-solitude) > Hannah Arendt, a political theorist, lamented that a feeling that was “once a borderline experience usually suffered in certain marginal social conditions like old age, has become an everyday experience of the ever-growing masses”. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/yaL2JPHgEe-RswOwboWPJA/www.economist.com/culture/2024/04/05/the-drawbacks-and-benefits-of-solitude) > The range of testimonies also suggests that loneliness is not a single feeling so much as a name for a medley of emotions and unsatisfied appetites. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/JtjQYPHiEe-1MW9_8VcAGw/www.economist.com/culture/2024/04/05/the-drawbacks-and-benefits-of-solitude) > It is common to treat loneliness and solitude as synonyms, but they are not. The authors suggest that what is negatively portrayed as one state can be positively reframed as the other. To this end they emphasise the restorative possibilities of being alone and include practical guidance. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/RhElhvHiEe-21bfHn58uyA/www.economist.com/culture/2024/04/05/the-drawbacks-and-benefits-of-solitude) > The book’s interviewees mostly regard a lack of company as conducive to autonomy. But this depends on whether solitude is elective or enforced. If it is enforced, as it is for social outcasts and some prisoners, for instance, it is often wretched. Elective solitude, by contrast, above all in natural settings, affords space for reflection. It can open the door to “peak experiences” such as wonder, awe, harmony, even ecstasy. (In a hyper-connected digital age, many readers may not fancy their chances of ever being unplugged long enough to have such experiences.) — [view in context](https://hyp.is/fHX7avHiEe-13EMkwtZfBQ/www.economist.com/culture/2024/04/05/the-drawbacks-and-benefits-of-solitude) > With a mixture of playfulness and grandiosity, he describes a society where most tasks can be completed without leaving the house. His book overflows with soundbites—the public sphere, for example, is dominated by “orgies of pettiness”—and he peppers his short chapters with references to Nietzsche, Plato and Rousseau. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/LxmSaPHjEe-kWz-nlb3ulQ/www.economist.com/culture/2024/04/05/the-drawbacks-and-benefits-of-solitude) > Though his argument spins off in many directions, Mr Bruckner’s main theme is the need for people to relearn the art of intimacy. “Interactive solitude”, enabled by technology, is no substitute for “the great theatre of the world”. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/NkCGyPHjEe-vXHeO8CfnaA/www.economist.com/culture/2024/04/05/the-drawbacks-and-benefits-of-solitude) > Mr Bruckner supplies a checklist for warding off enduring, corrosive feelings of loneliness: “Have we loved enough, given enough, lavished enough, embraced enough?” If these books are right, many readers will find themselves answering “No.” — [view in context](https://hyp.is/Pa5SvvHjEe-_n5vYjhFsjQ/www.economist.com/culture/2024/04/05/the-drawbacks-and-benefits-of-solitude)