At what can be one of the loneliest times of year, a historian of emotion picks the best books about a modern malady
Loneliness is everywhere. Or so it seems. It’s been described in medical terms, as an epidemic, plague and infection. It has its own minister in the UK, Baroness Barran, with indications that other countries – Switzerland, Germany, maybe even the US – may follow suit.
The problem is that loneliness is seldom defined. It’s often presented as an individual, even universal, mental affliction. But loneliness is relatively new. The word comes into common usage around 1800, linked to social change – especially the secularity, alienation and competition produced by modernity. Before then it was solitude that interested writers and philosophers. Solitude could be problematic, but in a landscape forged by God, was one ever alone?
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