Am I saying that loneliness has nothing to do with creativity?

No. What I am saying is that I think we have to stop seeing loneliness as something that makes us better than we would otherwise be. For a long time, people saw depression as key to creativity. It was as though, to be a successful writer or painter, you had to have a mood disorder.

And loneliness has been lumped into this category—it’s often cast as something enriching. As I noted in an earlier post on loneliness and creativity, loneliness does create the urge to communicate, and that’s probably key to a lot of creative work. But I think lonely people who do good work are doing it despite their loneliness, not because of it.

We’ve stopped seeing depression as a creative gift. We need to stop seeing loneliness in this light as well. Yes, loneliness can spur you to say something, and that’s really important. But it’s not the key to creativity. If anything, in leaving someone exhausted and worn out and sad feeling, it probably—in the long run—interferes with it.

I know this is not a popular position to take on the issue of loneliness and creativity, but as a lonely person who works in a creative field, it’s the position I stand by!