Main description:

Social isolation and loneliness are increasingly being recognised as a priority public health problem and policy issue worldwide, with the effect on mortality comparable to risk-factors such as smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity. From the Abyss of Loneliness to the Bliss of Solitude sheds much-needed light on a multifaceted global phenomenon of loneliness, and investigates it, together with its counterpart solitude, from an exciting breadth of perspectives: detailed studies of psychoanalytic approaches to loneliness, developmental psychology, philosophy, culture, arts, music, literature, and neuroscience. The subjects covered also range widely, including the history and origins of loneliness, its effects on children, the creative process, health, lone wolf terrorism, and shame.

This is a timely and important contribution to a growing problem - greatly exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic - that has serious effects on both life quality and expectancy. The book features contributions from a diverse host of leading international experts: Dominic Angeloch, Patrizia Arfelli, Charles Ashbach, Manfred E. Beutel, Elmar Brahler, Jagna Brudzinska, Michael B. Buchholz, Lesley Caldwell, Karin Dannecker, Aleksandar Dimitrejevic, Mareike Ernst, Jay Frankel, Gail A. Hornstein, Colum Kenny, Eva M. Klein, Helga de la Motte-Haber, Gamze OEzcurumez Bilgili, Inge Seiffge-Krenke, and Peter Shabad. The contributors address the developmental and communicative causes of loneliness, its neurophysiological correlates and artistic representations, and how loneliness differs to solitude, which some consider necessary for creativity. They also provide insights into how we can help those suffering from loneliness, as classical psychoanalytic papers are revisited, contemporary therapeutic perspectives presented, and detailed case presentations offered.

From the Abyss of Loneliness to the Bliss of Solitude is essential reading for mental health professionals and those searching for a better understanding of what it means to be lonely and how the lonely can better voice their loneliness and step out of it.

Contents:

Acknowledgments

About the editors and contributors

Introduction

Part I: Philosophy and culture

Introduction to Part I

1.The hidden sociality of the solitary subject. Phenomenological and psychoanalytical reflections on loneliness

Jagna Brudzinska

2. 'And live alone in the bee-loud glade'? Asceticism and the construction of solitude

Colum Kenny

3.Lone wolves' loneliness - about a special variant of terrorism

Michael B. Buchholz

4. History of private self and solitude

Aleksandar Dimitrijevic

Part II: Art and literature

Introduction to Part II

5. Musical facet of loneliness

Helga de la Motte-Haber

6. Myth of the solitary artist

Aleksandar Dimitrijevic

7. The lonely house

Karin Dannecker

8. Seven kinds of loneliness. Psychic pain in David Rabe's play Hurlyburly

Dominic Angeloch

Part III: Developmental psychology and health

Introduction to Part III

9. The dual function of loneliness: a developmental perspective

Inge Seiffge-Krenke

10. Loneliness and insecure attachment

Aleksandar Dimitrijevic

11. Epidemiology of loneliness

Eva M. Klein, Mareike Ernst, Manfred E. Beutel, and Elmar Brahler

12. Loneliness and health

Gamze OEzcurumez Bilgili

13. Loneliness and the brain

Gamze OEzcurumez Bilgili

Part IV: Psychoanalysis

Introduction to Part IV

14. Loneliness in child analysis cases

Patrizia Arfelli

15. Landscapes of loneliness: engaging with Frieda Fromm-Reichmann's pioneering work

Gail Hornstein

16. Through the prism of being alone. A further dialogue between Donald Winnicott and Melanie Klein

Lesley Caldwell

17. Traumatic aloneness in children with narcissistically preoccupied parents

Jay Frankel

18. The clinical rncounter with the lonely patient: Trauma and the Empty Self

Charles Ashbach

19. Shame and its cover-up: the self-enclosed prison of isolation

Peter Shabad

20. Strengthening the human bond - Doing we is more important than "intervention"

Michael B. Buchholz

Index