You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Although loneliness has become a pressing problem in our society, even more so during the pandemic and lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, psychoanalysts write very little about loneliness and even less about solitude. This multifaceted book offers a comprehensive treatise of loneliness and solitude, firmly founded in cultural and philosophical contemplations, as well as consulting epidemiological, developmental, social, and neuroscience research. It consists of twenty fascinating essays by fifteen prominent scholars from disciplines related in some way to psychoanalysis or clinical psychology. The result is a powerful but subtle exploration of the basic human experience of being alone and of its turning into the tragedy of psychic isolation.
The twenty essays are divided into four parts, and each is preceded by a detailed introduction: I. Philosophy and Culture, II. Art and Literature, III. Developmental Psychology and Health, and IV. Psychoanalysis. Five essays are, moreover, authored by the editors themselves: Aleksandar Dimitrijević wrote Chapters 4, 6, and 10: “Historical roots of solitude and private self (with continual reference to Shakespeare)” (pp. 57-68); “Myth of the solitary artist” (pp. 103-119); and “Loneliness and insecure attachment” (pp. 185-199). Michael Buchholz wrote Chapters 3 and 20: “Lone wolves’ loneliness—About a special variant of terrorism” (pp. 31-56); and “Strengthening the human bond: in psychotherapy, ‘doing We’ is more important than intervention” (pp. 319-340).
Aleksandar Dimitrijević is a lecturer at the International Psychoanalytic University and psychoanalyst in private practice in Berlin. He is also one of the volume editors of the International Sándor Ferenczi Network Edition of the Works of Sándor Ferenczi; Michael B. Buchholz is emeritus at the International Psychoanalytic University in Berlin, and a social scientist, and psychoanalyst.