Is there such a thing as an "independent writer?"

In the long grueling search for a more focused paper topic, I have come across a ridiculous amount of discussion about "dependent" and "independent" writers/clients of the Writing Center. Specifically in the articles of Bruffee, Brooks, Shamoon and Burns, Clark and Healy, and Walker in the Longman Guide to Writing Center Theory and Practice. They all seem to want to avoid (as we have discussed at length in WCT class) creating a dependent writer, who cannot even get words on paper w/o someone there coaching them. On the other hand, the notion of independent writers is just as troubling since it implies that writing is in fact not a social act at all and that others (including the UWC) are not needed.

What I see as the real conflict is summed up quite well by Shamoon and Burns:

"In sum, [current] tutoring orthodoxy is: process-based, Socratic, private, a-disciplinary, and nonhierarchical or democratic. Many points in this characterization of writing [which smacks of Elbowvian expressivism, I must say] have been challenged by social-constructionist views. Social-constructionists characterize writing as a social act rather than as a process of personal discovery or individual expression" (228).

I find myself agreeing with Bruffee (whom Shamoon and Burns cite at length) that language use, whether it be written or verbal or signed, is always, on some level, a social act. Therefore, writing cannot occur independently; even a lone writer has an audience (imagined and real) that might not be there at the time of the writing. My problem with this way of thinking, though, is that the connotation is that the writer cannot construct original thought. Peter Elbow would say that at times we must ignore our audience (even the imaginary) to get out what we really want to say. He would also say (and has many times) that sharing what you write and say is key to growing as a writer (see Sharing and Responding if you don't believe me). I don't see these two ways of thinking (expressivist and social-constructionist) as two sides of an argument; rather, they are two sides of the same coin. Writing is a social and private act. Individuals can converse and still retain their individuality: this is the definition of voice.