Short answer: Yes. 

 

In my humble opinion, that is. 

 

Long answer: It varies by person and depends on the individual's emotional make-up. Generally speaking, I've seen that prolonged isolation tends to have disharmonious consequences on the individual. The science, such as what you quoted, backs this up for the most part.

 

I think much of it depends on your age and station in life as you alluded to.  Many people in their teens and twenties feel they  can get by without the emotional safety net the family provides if they have a circle of intimate friends. However, unlike the steadiness and sturdiness  that generally comes with  safety-nets based on family,  friends and acquaintances tend to move on. Some change colleges and go away. Others switch jobs. They move across state-lines or to different countries and have wives, kids and careers that take priority over you. That's when being isolated can turn bad for you.

 

Also, there is a difference between being by yourself and feeling isolated. Aloneness versus loneliness as they say. Or solitude versus isolation. Many people can be alone but not feel lonely and be perfectly happy with their condition. But if you  feel pity for your condition then that can trigger an avalanche of emotions and you could find yourself buried under an overwhelming onslaught of emotional and psychological forces that you have no prior experience dealing with. This can weaken your psychological make-up as you then find yourself having to identify, understand, accept and deal with emotions you didn't know existed. That's time and mental energy that you could have spend on doing things that you would enjoy and might have made you happy (and probably more confident)

 

On the flip side, solitude is great for creativity. Here I am sitting in an American city replying to your thread, trying to  make my response  palatable to you and other readers, revising what I have written and liberally using the right click button to correct my by now horrible spelling.   Had I been in Nepal, between the phone ringing like mad (since that is the primary mode of communication these days), the honking in the streets, the servants interrupting for tea and meals, streams of visitors dropping by to make social calls, I probably wouldn't have had time to reply to an email let alone write a few paragraphs on Sajha. 

 

That is why I feel Nepal is going to see an upsurge in writer's and artists in the years ahead. With so many of our most creative people living abroad and many of them presumably experiencing a  level of solitude conducive to creativity  we are bound to see the fruits of that in the days ahead. Nepal may have deprived itself of professionals, managers and leaders by  self-banishing  it's best and brightest but we may have accidentally invested in the more creative side of our brains in that process. That, in the long run, is a good thing  in my opinion.

Not sure if that was helpful but thought I'd share my two cents and spare change on the subject.

Regards,


  

Last edited: 20-Jan-11 03:41 PM