Loneliness

Dear Sir,

I read with interest Geoff Treasure’s article ‘Loneliness’ in the September edition of en. There is however another form of loneliness distinct from the social isolation covered by the article, and which may become especially poignant if sleeplessness should invade the small hours. It is existential loneliness.

We may be surrounded by friends and family and have meaningful relationships, but each one of us fundamentally is alone. Life’s vicissitudes may take from us those who mean most to us. Each human travels through life as a separate person and ultimately dies alone. Because everything we know has a beginning and an ending we are unable to grasp the concept of endless time, into which we will all pass, or of infinite space, through which this planet progresses. The contemplative and sensitive individual may feel isolated in the nothingness of the universe. Existential (spiritual) loneliness is a primordial incompleteness of being, a sense of longing that interpersonal answers do not satisfy.