Successful loners??

Question

I'm working on a group project for a colleger interpersonal communications course. We need to address a particular statement, by choosing a side and arguing our premise. My question to address is: The ultimate goal of every human being is to establish and maintan an intimate relationship with another person.

I will be debating against this viewpoint, under the premise that one can have a blessed, passionate, and fullfilling life w/o "having" to have a deep and personal emotional bond with another. I've done the research and can back up my views/arguments against pyschologist's theories, but I would also like to incoporate examples of successful loners into an activity.

Can anyone think of someone (w/in the last, say, 100 years max!) that was/is innovative, involved, or living life to the fullest but is not "certifiable" or has not simply just had a string of truly disasterous relationships??

Answer 1

How about the Dhalai Llama?

Don't let them broadly define the term " intimate relationship", the narrower the definition the better for you.

Intimate relationships are not the ultimate goal in life, but they can be the ultimate reward. Many people function just fine without them. You don't hear about a lot of them, because personal relationships are a key to being influential in history, so they tend to be socially invisible. It doesn't mean that they are not happy though. The old adage that ' I love mankind...It's people I can't stand", holds a lot of appeal with many people. Without a clinical diagnosis of depression, the assumption has to be that people have the ability to persue their own happiness. It is a totally subjective value. To assert that someone else can't be happy unless they conform to your values of what happiness is, is a fundementally flawed premise.

Answer 2

Nikola Tesla.

Answer 3

What about that guy who lived alone in the wilderness for most of his adult life and made all that documentary footage? I can't remember his name at the moment but they show his work on PBS all the time....hope that helps.