Solitude

[5] Long-term solitude is often seen as undesirable, causing loneliness or reclusion resulting from inability to establish relationships.

[citation needed] Some psychological conditions (such as schizophrenia[6] and schizoid personality disorder) are strongly linked to a tendency to seek solitude.

[7][8] Researchers, including Robert J. Coplan and Julie C. Bowker, have rejected the notion that solitary practices and solitude are inherently dysfunctional and undesirable.

In 1994, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi found that adolescents who cannot bear to be alone often stop enhancing creative talents.

[16] Solitude does not necessarily entail feelings of loneliness, and it may in fact be one's sole source of genuine pleasure for those who choose it with deliberate intent.

For example, in religious contexts, some saints preferred silence, finding immense pleasure in their uniformity with God.

Solitude is a state that can be positively modified utilizing it for prayer allowing to "be alone with ourselves and with God, to put ourselves in listening to His will, but also of what moves in our hearts, let purify our relationships; solitude and silence thus become spaces inhabited by God, and ability to recover ourselves and grow in humanity.

"[17] In psychology, introverted persons may require spending time alone to recharge, whereas those who are simply socially apathetic might find it a pleasurable setting in which to occupy oneself with solitary tasks.

The Buddha attained enlightenment through uses of meditation, deprived of sensory input, bodily necessities, and external desires, including social interaction.

This is well demonstrated in the writings of Edward Abbey with particular regard to Desert Solitaire where solitude focused only on isolation from other people allows for a more complete connection to the external world, as in the absence of human interaction the natural world itself takes on the role of the companion.

In this context, the individual seeking solitude does so not strictly for personal gain or introspection, though this is often an unavoidable outcome, but instead in an attempt to gain an understanding of the natural world as entirely removed from the human perspective as possible, a state of mind much more readily attained in the complete absence of outside human presence.