ABSTRACT
Loneliness is too important a problem to be left completely to psychologists, neurologists, gerontologists and health researchers, but the shortage of sociological research on loneliness is disappointing and should be corrected. A small number of sociologists focused their writings on loneliness, while some other sociologists’ research is indirectly related to loneliness. For five reasons, loneliness is a social problem: its origins are features of social relations, its meaning is social, its prevalence varies across social groups, it has serious social consequences, and its remedies are mostly social. Human beings feel lonely because their social relations are uncertain, out of their control, and many times unregulated. The sociological approach to loneliness pays serious attention to the formation, the changes, the socialization, the control, and the termination of social relations.
