Ask Mark 6.11 - Pleasure in solitude?
Channel: UCT CILT
Date: 2016-05-30

Ask Mark 6.11 - Pleasure in solitude?

Professor Mark Solms from the University of Cape Town (UCT) a question (see below) posed to him on UCT's free online course, "What is a Mind?", hosted by FutureLearn. For more information on visit http://bit.ly/1JB2Dxf .

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Question: Are you not risking being too universalistic in your thinking about humans i.e. social attachment that fundamental to all humans. How would you account for people who find pleasure in being alone (even being a hermit), if depression is caused by separation?

Not everyone is that sociable and needing of attachments - in fact some people ‘need their own space’. An introvert and extrovert have very different responses to the same cause (e.g. being alone on a Friday night). This cause has the effect of making the introvert happy (“excellent, some me-time ”); the same cause has the effect of making the extrovert miserable (“I should be out there doing things, with other people”) Can you account for profound individual differences?