Multiple intelligences

The psychology of solitude in Anthony Storr and Howard Gardner is too often seen as a tool for creativity. Their books feature composers, musicians, artists, writers, and scientists who easily fit the description of creativity. But what about the rest of us? Here I think Gardner’s introduction of the concept of multiple intelligences relieves us of thinking of creativity as exclusively logical-linguistic. Of course, no one ever thought that creative people were exclusively that, but neither had anyone foreseen alternative intelligences as both an explanation and a temperament (witness schooling, which is almost exclusively logical-linguistic). Gardner’s theory sets the stage for solitude as an expression of the multiple intelligences, expressed differently in each. The spiritual, natural, intrapersonal, spatial – all stand out as uniquely expressive of solitude as a temperament and a goal, not merely a tool.