From Loneliness to Solitude in Person-centred Health Care

This  innovative book provides a new conceptual analysis of loneliness – a  condition associated with severe health consequences, including  increased morbidity and early death.

Arguing that  social connection is not the only answer, it explores pathways for  transforming loneliness to healthy solitude. The first part of the book  draws on the humanities and arts, including psychology, philosophy, and  literature to analyse the common, and potentially serious, problem of  loneliness. It makes the case that the condition is less a deficiency  than a state of self-disconnection that modernity feeds through social  forces. The second part of the book looks at how person-centred health  care can help educate persons to transform loneliness into healthy  solitude. It provides an analysis of self-connection and spiritual  connection, discussing how these forms of contact can mitigate risks  associated with both lack of social connection, and social connection  itself, such as self-disconnection and rejection by others. It goes on  to demonstrate that connection to the self and spirit can make aloneness  a resource and facilitate access to benefits of connecting with others.

This  thought-provoking book provides students, scholars, and practitioners  from a range of health and social care backgrounds with a new way of  thinking about, researching, and practising with lonely people.