Description
Book SynopsisThis is the peculiar paradox of loneliness: I am unseen yet I feel exposed, as though my most internal suffering were on public display, as though I am disclosing to the world the vulnerability it does not want to see. By reflecting on the experience of loneliness through the author''s own life, the narratives of others and analyses from Arendt to Berardi,
Thinking Through Loneliness explores the ambiguities of being alone. It seeks to defy the reductionist tendencies of the current loneliness experts, looking beyond loneliness as a collective health crisis to consider what it tells us about our great need for one another and what happens when we fail to meet this need. Our social needs vary, however; to investigate loneliness is to inquire into the contradictions of the human conditionwe are alone and together, separate and attachedwhich gives rise to the need for individuality on the one hand, and for intimacy on the other. To be lonely is to suffer from an unfulfilled desire
Trade ReviewPoignant philosophical, social, literary, and deeply personal meditations on the complexities of contemporary phenomena of loneliness. The book offers a profound understanding of the ambiguities of loneliness as both an essential part of human condition and an effect of historically specific sociopolitical technologies of power. * Ewa Plonowska Ziarek, Professor of Comparative Literature and Global Gender And Sexuality Studies, University at Buffalo, USA *
Togetherness is dangerous in the viral age, and friendship an economic inconvenience in the neoliberal world. This is why this philosophical journey through contemporary loneliness, free from fake consolations, is a must read. * Franco Berardi, Italy *
Table of Contentspreface acknowledgements PART I: What Is Loneliness? 1. The Paradox (I) 2. The Lonely I 3. The Lonely We 4. Stigma 5. In the Village 6. In the Loneliness Laboratory 7. The Paradox (II) 8. What is Loneliness? 9. The Happiness of Others 10. The Alienation of Gregor Samsa 11. The Philosopher Stands Alone 12. In the Hole 13. The Ambivalence of Solitude 14. Solus 15. Alone Together PART II: Why Are We Lonely? 1. Organized Loneliness 2. The Tyranny of the Couple 3. At Home 4. The Antisocial Family 5. Against Community 6. Nostalgia 7. “The Soul at Work” 8. In the Desert 9. The Iron Band of Technology 10. Social Failure PART III: What Do We Need? 1. Pandemic Pause 2. To Belong 3. Proximity 4. Distance 5. In the Neighborhood 6. At the Café 7. At the Market 8. Care 9. Friend 10. Love 11. The Join 12. Witness
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