Solitude a return to the self ebook

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Download them all: compensation-george Have not added any EPUB format description! This acclaimed book by Anthony Storr is available at eBookMall. Anthony Storr. Not only. Solitude was seminal in challenging the established belief that "interpersonal relationships of an intimate kind are the chief, if not the only, source of human happiness. Lucid and lyrical, Storr's book cites numerous examples of brilliant scholars and artists -- from Beethoven and Kant to Anne Sexton and Beatrix Potter -- to demonstrate that solitude ranks alongside relationships in its impact on an individual's well-being and productivity, as well as on society's progress and health.

But solitary activity is essential not only for geniuses, says Storr; the average person, too, is enriched by spending time alone. For fifteen years, readers have found inspiration and renewal in Storr's erudite, compassionate vision of human experience. Get A Copy. Paperback , pages. Published October 3rd by Free Press first published July 18th More Details Original Title. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

To ask other readers questions about Solitude , please sign up. Is this book available as an audiobook anywhere? A rough comparison between this and Susan Cain's "Quiet", anyone? The overview of both looks pretty much the same. See all 3 questions about Solitude…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Solitude: A Return to the Self.

Dec 31, Brendan rated it really liked it. Some of these reviews disappoint the hell out of me in terms of their reflection of how some modern people tend to read books. One of the positive notes in a fairly positive review was that it's "quite validating.

Is that why we read books? To validate what we already feel? Another reviewer called it discordant. It was not discordant--it eased itself back and forth between argumentative methods as it went along. Is that really too sophisticated of a technique?

It seems pretty Some of these reviews disappoint the hell out of me in terms of their reflection of how some modern people tend to read books.

It seems pretty simple to me. He moves from one technique, lets it work on you a little, then moves to another technique, lets that one work on you. The substance, even as the techniques shift, is still concordant--it doesn't bounce around randomly. In the end, the effect is tremendous. Someone also said that it "seems old. This is a classic academic style, although written with more popular appeal than many academic works. Someone who doesn't have much patience or read much academic stuff might get bored.

It is pretty subtle, it doesn't overtly package its message within a lot of bells and whistles like most commercial books today do. This I consider an advantage. The ideas speak for themselves. Storr is telling you, steadily, with each new chapter building up his evidence, that solitude is just as valid an approach to creativity and greatness as sociability. Why does he answer Freud so often in the pages of this book?

Because society and even most likely you too, whether consciously or not places FAR more credit on sociability than on solitude. And this notion absolutely originated with Freud. This has never been more true than it is today, in , the digital age.

Solitude is anathema to modern life. Standard validation is still in the form of approval or judgment from others. Our quality of and ability to deal with social relationships are still the barometers by which most of us are judged as being either "well-adjusted" or not. This needn't be the case. It shouldn't. Storr tells us why, and inspires us along the way. View all 4 comments. Nov 16, Michael Perkins rated it it was amazing. Marcel Proust, Kipling, P. Wodehouse, Graham Greene, Beethoven, Anne Sexton, Beatrice Potter, Goyaare a few examples in this book of how creative people benefitted from solitude.

The capacity to be Marcel Proust, Kipling, P. The capacity to be alone is one aspect of an inner security which can be built in the early years. Some children who enjoy the solitary exercise of the imagination may develop creative potential. She likes us to be around, but she will look through books on her own. And stand, for some time, looking out our front window and talk to herself and laugh. First is preparation. One develops some preliminary interest in a particular subject, collects material, and reads everything he can find about it.

The next phase is incubation. The material simmers and the brain begins to organize it. Then there is illumination when one develops insights, finds a solution to a problem, and figures out how to order the material into a thesis or a story arc.

Kipling, just before his sixth birthday, was left with his sister in the care of a retired naval captain and his wife, Captain and Mrs Holloway. The parents did not inform their children that they were returning to India without them.

Kipling was not to see his mother again until April , at age He was also bullied at the local day-school to which he was sent, and at which he performed badly.

Every night he was cross-examined as to how he had spent his day. Each contradiction which the frightened, sleepy child produced was treated as a deliberate lie, and further proof of punishable wickedness. He also discovered that, if only adults left him alone, he could, through reading, escape into a world of his own.

He was able to cultivate his imagination in solitude. Like Edward Lear, he was at his best and most relaxed with children. He also exhibited an extraordinary capacity for inspiring confidence in others, who found themselves telling him their troubles in the assurance that he would not betray them.

It often originates in the kind of premature concern with the feelings of others which Kipling describes himself as having had to develop as a child. Kipling became watchful and wary; alert to the changing moods of adults which might presage anger.

This prescient awareness of what others were feeling and of how they displayed their emotions probably stood him in good stead when he came to write. Dantes would go on to become the Count many years hence. For the time being, however, Dantes has no real mental resources of his own to sustain him.

For a time, he tries religion but gives up in despair. He becomes self-destructive, but eventually resigns himself to death. This reminded me of a chapter in "Solitude" that I had not discussed above, "Enforced Solitude. Edith Bone, who later published a book "Seven Years Solitary.

A notable linguist, she had been invited to Hungary to translate English scientific books into Hungarian. She herself had joined the Communist Party in She was accused of being a British agent, but refused to make a false confession or in any way to collaborate with her interrogators.

This elderly lady spent seven years in prison before she was finally released in November For three of those years she was denied access to books or writing materials. The cell in which she was first confined was bitterly cold and had no window. Worse was to come.

For five months she was kept in a cellar in total darkness. The walls ran with water or were covered with fungus; the floor was deep in excrement. There was no ventilation. Dr Bone invented various techniques for keeping herself sane. She recited and translated poetry, and herself composed verses. She completed a mental inventory of her vocabulary in the six languages in which she was fluent, and went for imaginary walks through the streets of the many cities which she knew well.

Throughout these and other ordeals, Dr Bone treated her captors with contempt, and never ceased to protest her innocence. She is not only a shining example of courage which few could match, but also illustrates the point that a well-stocked, disciplined mind can prevent its own disruption. When we first encounter him in the novel, he is on the floor of his cell working on a geometric drawing that the author likens to the work of Archimedes.

By reading and re-reading them, I discovered that one hundred and fifty books, carefully chosen, give you, if not a complete summary of human knowledge, at least everything that it is useful for a man to know. I devoted three years of my life to reading and re-reading these hundred and fifty volumes, so that when I was arrested I knew them more or less by heart. In prison, with a slight effort of memory, I recalled them entirely. When I go back to the past, I forget the present.

I walk free and independently through history, and forget that I am a prisoner. View all 14 comments. As a very solitary person — for example, I once went eight months without having any kind of conversation with anyone whether online or in person which is extreme not really recommended - naturally, this book interested me.

Truthfully I was hoping, ideally, for something from this book that would click in me so that I would not desire or need any relationships with people because I can't seem to do them but yeah, no, that is not going to happen. Anyway as it turned out, strangely enough, the bo As a very solitary person — for example, I once went eight months without having any kind of conversation with anyone whether online or in person which is extreme not really recommended - naturally, this book interested me.

Anyway as it turned out, strangely enough, the book seemed to be more of a psychological discussion of creativity. One message I got was that many creative people suffered and had psychological issues - e. It doesn't look like it necessarily mean happiness but it seems sensible and sympathetic in recognising that solitude and creation may be just what is positive that the person can do for themselves.

I don't know how much of a theory based on a creative myth this is, as opposed to more rigorous objectivity. For example, is it not so uncommon amongst non-creatives or those who are not solitary that there are people with psychological issues or challenging life circumstances if you study their life just as much as Storr looked at the lives of his examples Kafka, Newton, Beethoven, Beatrix Potter, etc.

OK, maybe everyone is messed up in some way. That appeals to the misanthrope in me. Or, of course, what about creative people who had close and intimate relationships and were not solitary?

However it is, I fully agree with Storr that times of solitude are positive for a lot of people if they balance it up with contact with other people and that the "happiest lives are probably those in which neither interpersonal relationships nor impersonal interests are idealised as the only way to salvation.

The desire and pursuit of the whole must comprehend both aspects of human nature. View all 3 comments. Apr 28, Ken rated it it was amazing. The more we broadcast ourselves on a constant basis, the more we chip away at even the concept of solitude. Every meal you eat is a photo meant to be shared, every funny thought you have is a tweet being prepared for the hive mind. Online communication isn't the same as making a material world connection - but neither is it the same as being alone. Solitude has been the basis for so much of my creative accomplishment wonderful collaborative efforts notwithstanding.

We need connection, and we a The more we broadcast ourselves on a constant basis, the more we chip away at even the concept of solitude. We need connection, and we also need solitude, and online conversation is neither of those things - but does it feed the need to create in some way, or is it more of a false nourishment - all the comfort of basking in inspiration, with none of the impetus to actually create? I wonder how the author might have seen it. View 1 comment. Sep 07, Emma rated it it was amazing Shelves: psychology , art-creativity , spirituality , philosophy , introvert-superpowers.

In the flood of books in all fields about social behaviour, a book extolling the virtues of solitude stands out. Storr critiques the premise of much psychotherapy esp attachment theory that we need to be fixed so that we can have fulfilling social relationships and thereby be 'successful'. He argues that purpose and work and, importantly, the ability to be alone, are of equal value and uses creative people as examples. Thus he says, "The capacity to form attachments on equal terms is considere In the flood of books in all fields about social behaviour, a book extolling the virtues of solitude stands out.

Thus he says, "The capacity to form attachments on equal terms is considered evidence of emotional maturity. It is the absence of this capacity which is pathological. Whether there may be other criteria of emotional maturity, like the capacity to be alone, is seldom taken into account. Yet the lives of creative individuals often seem to run counter to this assumption. When from our better selves we have too long Been parted by the hurrying world, and droop, Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired, How gracious, how benign, is Solitude.

Aug 13, Jenn "JR" rated it it was amazing Shelves: psych-self-help , sociology-social-psych. First, this book is magnificently structured.

The quality of writing and clarity of concepts laid out from the preface to the last page is well organized and clear without being overly pedantic or repetitive. The author refers to concepts and goals of previous sections of the book - even mentions upcoming areas that will be addressed later - and it all just flows really nicely.

Very tightly written book - it's only pages the rest are notes. Second - this book does a really great job of talk First, this book is magnificently structured. Second - this book does a really great job of talking about the need for solitude as a balance to the need for human relationships and interactions using the experiences of highly accomplished historical figures including Beatrix Potter, Kant, Dostoevsky, Newton and many others.

This was originally published in - so many watershed events happened in the 80s, and most people in developed countries were on the precipice of previously unknown opportunity for connection, distraction and surveillance of each other's activities. This is because of the current emphasis upon object relationships, and the disregard of processes which take place in solitude. We even use the Greek word for a person who lives alone - troglodyte - as an insult to indicate some kind of stupid or defective person.

Storr goes into detail about the intrinsic need for humans to spend time alone -- sleep, for example, and dreams -- they provide our brain with time alone to integrate and heal and process experiences, ideas and thoughts about things. Humans always crave some kind of solitude -- and even in the face of social convention and obligation, we come up with ways to get time to ourselves -- Florence Nightingale feigned a health complaint so she could get time alone to study and write.

Victorian women would have time to "rest" in the afternoons after spending so much time being empathically focused on the needs of others. So - why is it that 30 years after this book was written, it seems like we are still not allowing people to take or make space to integrate their thoughts, experiences and ideas so that they can be healthier, happier and more productive?

It seems counter productive to require an "always on", in the office for 8 hours workday when that's not really how human brains function. Being alone is necessary not just for personal life - but for professional life as well. Get BOOK. Solitude a Return to the Self. Originally published in , Anthony Storr's bestselling meditation on the creative individual's need for solitude has become a classic. The author disagrees with the view that only intimate relationships can provide mental and personal satisfaction arguing that solitude has restorative powers.