Dr David Jones publishes in a special edition of the Journal of Psychosocial Studies
Images: Dr David Jones own photo; Image of Journal by permission of Journal of Psychosocial Studies
The Loneliness Pandemic? A Special Edition of the Journal of Psychosocial Studies
https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/jps/jps-overview.xml?tab_body=latest-issue
By David W Jones
Olivia Sagan approached me a while ago, in my role as Co-Editor of the Journal of Psychosocial Studies, with an idea for an article on ‘loneliness’. I was immediately struck by what an important psychosocial topic this was and that there was perhaps the opportunity here for a special edition of the journal. We created a call for papers and the results of that call have just been published.
As the papers in the special edition [https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/jps/17/1/article-p2.xml] emphasise, loneliness requires a psychosocial analysis for a number of reasons. Firstly, the experience of loneliness is clearly highly subjective. Most people will be aware that actually being physically alone does not equate to loneliness; many people are happy to report positive experiences of solitude. Conversely, people can feel acutely ‘lonely’ when surrounded by others. Secondly, it is a topic central to debate in sociology about the nature of human society and community, with the question of what the forces of modernity, industrialisation and urbanisation were doing to human relationships drove the emergence of the discipline in the 19th century. Salient here were Durkheim’s efforts to demonstrate the significance of social cohesion to human wellbeing through plotting rates of suicide with measures of social dis-integration. Shifts in perspective on loneliness can be traced through the Edition, as Cooper [https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/jps/17/1/article-p28.xml ] notes there were strains of thought in the middle of the 20th century that saw loneliness as a problem located within the individual – the lonely were variously seen as inadequate, lazy or selfish. Whilst there has been a shift towards more sympathetic perspectives, the shame associated with loneliness doubtless continues. It can be hard to admit to feeling lonely.
In the past few decades interest in understanding the impact of wide social changes on experiences of loneliness has spread beyond academia and has become one of popular debate as the idea that we are living in times of a loneliness pandemic. A headline in The Financial Times last May [https://www.ft.com/content/5f712fe8-611c-405e-9098-09ccff95d6de] is typical in suggesting that ‘The loneliness epidemic threatens our health as well as our happiness’ as it assumes the growth of loneliness and points to suggestions that loneliness makes us more prone to depression, dementia, heart attacks, and long-term lung disease. In the UK, political parties and government now view loneliness a topic requiring government attention (an all-party parliamentary group ‘on loneliness’ was organised in 2018).
Structural factors doubtless play a part in creating loneliness. It is true that, in the western world at least, we are more likely to live in smaller households, and spend less of our time with others. The forces of neo-liberalism are pointed towards as at the root cause of this state of affairs – as we are pushed to regard ourselves as individual projects, valued by our achievements, wealth and status rather than through our everyday connections to others. Meanwhile, it is suggested we are encouraged to stay on our own and engage with social media rather than face the hassle of going out and meeting others. The COVID pandemic made these issues all the more acute.
And yet, as the article by Nathan Gerard [https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/jps/17/1/article-p15.xml] in the edition notes we have been worrying about loneliness for a long time, suggesting perhaps there is something about the human condition that we are struggling with. Back in the 17th century the French philosopher Blaise Pascal went so far as to suggest that ‘all of ’ humanity’s problems stemmed from our inability to ‘stay quietly’ in our own room. Instead, we were drawn out to seek the company of others to form groups and societies and that would eventually lead to argument, violence and war. Pascal’s understanding of our fear of staying quietly in our room was that we sought distract from the grim reality of our ‘feeble and mortal condition’ (Pascal, 1958 [1670]: 140) that doomed us to rather short lives despite whatever our grander dreams might wish for. The predicament raised by Pascal – that just as though we struggle to simply be alone, we are also find being with others as much of a problem– is one that continues, as this volume suggests, to intrigue and tease us. As Gerard notes there is a tradition of thought in psychoanalysis that that suggests that the capacity to be alone is itself not only a considerable developmental achievement, but is essential to creative living – but that capacity is paradoxically dependent on our ability to relate to others and to have experienced good enough care. Galanaki and Malafantis [https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/jps/17/1/article-p77.xml] make the point that experiences of childhood solitude can be linked to creativity in adulthood.
Dr David Jones is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology & Counselling.
OU Psychology & Counselling 