Capacity to be alone is a developmentally acquired ability, considered by object relations theory to be a key to creative living.
[1] D. W. Winnicott in his article of that name (1958/64) highlighted the importance of the capacity to be alone, distinguishing it from both withdrawal and loneliness, and seeing it as derived from an internalisation of the non-intrusive background presence of a mothering figure.
[3] Out of those early experiences emerges the capacity to be alone in (or out of) the presence of others - something which might have to be re-acquired later in life through psychotherapy.
[4] A later strand of analysis, drawing on the work on listening of Theodore Reik, has emphasised the importance of the analyst's capacity to be alone in the analytic situation - to remain centred in themselves in the face of the projections and resistances of the patient.
[5] André Green saw the fertile interaction of reading/writing as rooted in the capacity to be alone.