Loneliness is a complex and usually unpleasant feeling in which a person feels a strong sense of emptiness and solitude. The causes of loneliness are varied, but it can be affected by social, mental, emotional, and spiritual factors. It is a natural phenomenon, since humans are social creatures by nature. Loneliness has also been described as social pain — a psychological mechanism meant to alert an individual of isolation and motivate him/her to seek social connections.
Read more about Loneliness: Common Causes, Distinction From Solitude, As Human Condition, Rates of Loneliness, In Modern Society, Effects, Treatments and Prevention
Famous quotes containing the word loneliness:
“Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer’s loneliness, but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“In Africa I had indeed found a sufficiently frightful kind of loneliness but the isolation of this American ant heap was even more shattering.”
—Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894–1961)
“Do you know why I came to you, Amy? Why I came to be your friend? Because you called to me. Out of your loneliness you called me and brought me into being. And I came, so that your childhood could be bright and full of friendliness. Now you must send me away.... You’ll remember me for a while, mourn a little, but then you’ll forget. And that is as it should be.”
—Dewitt Bodeen (1908–1988)