Rescuing Shyness | Resist the hostility of the social world

Nothing about shyness bothers non-shy people more than the reluctance of shy people to talk. "What's the matter with you? Speak up! Be assertive! Stop hiding from us!" - that's their common refrain in workplaces, at school, etc. Why are social people like that? I think it starts with their instinctual need for communication. Never … Continue reading Rescuing Shyness | Resist the hostility of the social world

Loners |The one place where society welcomes them |Anneli Rufus and her book Party of One

Loners have a hard time in the modern, day-to-day world, yet not in fiction and film. Solitary men - who I think are shy and/or autistic men - are heroes in literature and the movies – James Fenimore Cooper's Natty Bumpo in The Deerslayer and The Last of the Mohicans. David Copperfield in the Dickens … Continue reading Loners |The one place where society welcomes them |Anneli Rufus and her book Party of One

Autism’s lost loners|the boy who bought the Earth

  Somewhere I’ve said that I think most loners are on the ASD spectrum. Enough has been written about famous loners who, in ‘real life’, have or probably have or had Asperger’s syndrome/ASD - Bill Gates, Michael Jackson, Vladimir Putin, Abraham Lincoln, etc, etc - in this series, I’m going to look at forgotten ones, … Continue reading Autism’s lost loners|the boy who bought the Earth

Psychologist Philip Zimbardo’s warning about Incels and/or Shy Loners

Writing since the 1970s, Philip Zimbardo is one of the few psychologists who has devoted much of his career to shyness. In a Mar 31, 2016 post in Psychology Today, "The New Shyness -How virtual reality has made social Isolation more seductive than ever before", Zimbardo provided a very interesting update. He says shyness is … Continue reading Psychologist Philip Zimbardo’s warning about Incels and/or Shy Loners

Rescuing Shyness|Why being a loner may be good for your health

The above refers to a Feb 28/2018 “Best of BBC Future” post by Christine Ro. After acknowledging that there has been a lot of research into the negative psychological effects of 'social isolation' (for example, the Royal College of General Practicioners in the UK say that research has found loneliness to have a risk level … Continue reading Rescuing Shyness|Why being a loner may be good for your health