Editing Solitude (section)

{{Short description|State of seclusion or isolation of a person}}
{{Other uses|Solitude (disambiguation)}} 

'''Solitude''', also known as '''social withdrawal''', is a state of [[seclusion]] or isolation, meaning lack of [[socialisation]]. Effects can be either positive or negative, depending on the situation. Short-term solitude is often valued as a time when one may work, think, or rest without disturbance. It may be desired for the sake of [[privacy]]. Long-term solitude may stem from soured relationships, loss of loved ones, deliberate choice, [[infectious disease]], [[mental disorder]]s, [[neurological disorder]]s such as [[circadian rhythm sleep disorder]], or circumstances of employment or situation.

A distinction has been made between solitude and [[loneliness]]. In this sense, these two words refer, respectively, to the joy and the pain of being alone.<ref>[[Paul Tillich]], ''The Eternal Now'', 1963, chapter 1 "Loneliness and Solitude", section II: "Our language has wisely sensed these two sides of being alone. It has created the word 'loneliness' to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word 'solitude' to express the glory of being alone."</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Alexander Pope |title=Ode on Solitude |date=31 December 2002 |url=http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ode-on-solitude/ |access-date=2016-04-01 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160421125715/http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ode-on-solitude |archive-date=2016-04-21 |author-link=Alexander Pope }}</ref><ref>[[Hannah Arendt]], ''[[The Origins of Totalitarianism]]'', 1973, chapter 13 "Ideology and Terror: A Novel Form of Government", p. 476: "As [[Epictetus]] sees it (''Dissertationes'', Book 3, ch. 13) the lonely man (''eremos'') finds himself surrounded by others with whom he cannot establish contact or to whose hostility he is exposed. The solitary man, on the contrary, is alone and therefore 'can be together with himself' since men have the capacity of 'talking with themselves.' In solitude, in other words, I am 'by myself,' together with my self, and therefore two-in-one, whereas in loneliness I am actually one, deserted by all others.", {{ISBN|0156701537}}. Solitude is a pivotal phenomenon in the thinking of existentialists, and reflections on it have been recently tied with pandemic lockdowns and self-isolation solitary confinement; for example as argued in: [[Nader El-Bizri]], "Being in Solitary Quarantine", Studia UBB Philosophia, Vol. 65, No. 2 (2020): 7–32.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Matuszewski |first=Rafał |title=Being Alone in Antiquity: Greco-Roman Ideas and Experiences of Misanthropy, Isolation and Solitude |publisher=De Gruyter |year=2021 |isbn=9783110758078}}</ref>