ABSTRACT

Rising life expectancies and declining social capital in the developed world mean that an increasing number of people are likely to experience some form of loneliness in their lifetimes than ever before. Narratives of Loneliness tackles some of the most pressing issues related to loneliness, showing that whilst recent policies on social integration, community building and volunteering may go some way to giving an illusion of not being alone, ultimately, they offer a rhetoric of togetherness that may be more seductive than ameliorative, as the condition and experience of loneliness is far more complex than commonly perceived.

Containing thought-provoking contributions from researchers and commentators in several countries, this important work challenges us to rethink some of the burning issues of our day with specific reference to the causes and consequences of loneliness. Topics include the loneliness and mental health of military personnel, loneliness and social media, loneliness and sexuality, urban loneliness, and the experiences of transnational movement and adopted children. This book therefore makes an overdue multidisciplinary contribution to the emerging debate about how best to deal with loneliness in a world that combines greater and faster connectedness on the one hand with more intensely experienced isolation on the other.

Since Émile Durkheim first claimed that the structure of society could have a strong bearing on psychological health in the 1890s, researchers in a range of disciplines have explored the probable impact of social context on mental health and wellbeing. Interdisciplinary in approach, Narratives of Loneliness will therefore be of great interest to academics, postgraduate students and researchers in social sciences, the arts, psychology and psychiatry.

part 1|115 pages

Inter and intrapersonal loneliness

chapter 1|15 pages

Loneliness

An overview

chapter 2|9 pages

Loneliness and relatedness

A philosophical and psychotherapeutic account

chapter 3|13 pages

The lonely side of war’s aftermath

Traumatization and isolation among veterans

chapter 5|10 pages

Cyberloneliness

The curse of the cursor?

chapter 6|11 pages

Loneliness in Lithuanian transnational families

‘I am happy if my children are happy’?

chapter 7|11 pages

Disconnections

Loneliness in the lives of mobile singles

chapter 9|12 pages

Adoption and loneliness

chapter 10|11 pages

Loneliness in education

The agony and the enstasy

part 2|106 pages

Loneliness

chapter 11|13 pages

From lonely cities to prosocial places

How evidence-informed urban design can reduce the experience of loneliness

chapter 12|13 pages

‘The lonely city’

Urban infrastructure and the problem of loneliness

chapter 15|12 pages

Loneliness as an occupational hazard

Academic identities and the neoliberal work ethic

chapter 16|13 pages

Isolated and suicidal

Critically assessing the persistent stereotype of queer youth as isolated and lonely on a pathway to the big city

chapter 17|13 pages

The possibilities of loneliness in a changing world

Performing place in Withdrawn

chapter 18|10 pages

The new gay loneliness?

Desire and urban gay male cultures

chapter 19|10 pages

Loneliness in cinema

A pharmacological approach