The pangs of solitude, traditionally linked with isolation, but which may also be of a depressive kind, are liable to be associated with the childhood and adult attitude of sulking, which consists in pretending a certain kind of of pain in order to blackmail one’s neighbor. Sulking has noxious physiological effects, but also a few secondary benefits (especially apparent in Rousseau’ Rêveries du promeneur solitaire). Finally, it may trigger repressions, resulting in the disappearance of its meaning and turning “ intentional ” behavior into a set of negatively experienced symptoms. The restitution of the original meaning of such behavior may argue in favor of a psychoanalysis emphasizing the dimension of the “ subject ”.