When Self-reliance Is Really Just Isolation

• The article examines self-reliance and its potential to lead to isolation.

• It discusses the psychological impacts of excessive self-reliance and isolation.

• It provides reflective questions to help readers assess their behaviors.

Self-reliance? Yes

Every New Year's Day for decades, I would pull out my ragged copy of Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson and read it almost ritualistically. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a 19th-century American essayist and philosopher, known for his central role in the Transcendentalist movement and his essays on individualism and self-reliance. This classic essay touts the idea that non-conformity is the pathway to happiness. To that point, a quote from the essay: "Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist." It holds that a man needs to trust his instincts and intuition to become more authentic.

So far, so good.

The non-conformist lessons of Emerson's essay seemed vital to me, I’ve been a guy who tends to worry too much about what others think of him, and the no…