The sense of difference

This chapter elaborates the sense of difference through understanding loneliness. The data of the study comprised three different data sets available for research use at the Finnish Social Science Data Archive. The aim was to explore how the participants discussed the relationship between loneliness and disability. In the data, loneliness was depicted as emotional and social isolation, and loneliness was entwined with the sense of difference. The study shows how profound, long-lasting loneliness diminishes agency of persons with disabilities, and at the same time how the relationship between disability and loneliness is complex and entails different aspects in social relations and individual life trajectories.