Encounters with Loneliness: Only the Lonely Edited by Arlene Kramer Richards, Lucille Spira and Arthur A. Lynch

This book is primarily based on Symposium 2012: On Loneliness which took place at Mount Sinai Medical Center in March 2012 and also on the discussion group—Towards an Understanding of Loneliness and Aloneness in Women (now, Towards an Understanding of Loneliness and Aloneness)—at the American Psychoanalytic Association meetings in New York City, which was started by Arlene Kramer Richards and Lucille Spira.

Special announcement: Encounters with Loneliness: Only the Lonely has won the 2014 Gradiva Award for Anthologies!

From the foreword by Harold P. Blum: “This remarkable anthology of fascinating papers on loneliness is unique in the psychoanalytic literature. Although loneliness is a universal ubiquitous experience, it has not previously been discussed in the rich variety of its sources and manifestations. There have been scattered valuable papers on loneliness in the past, but never before brought together in a kaleidoscopic collection allowing a survey of different definitions, approaches, perspectives, and conclusions. This anthology includes different avenues of investigation, varied approaches, multiple dimensions, clarifications, and understandings, as well as questions and controversies about loneliness. The four sections of the book: Loneliness, Creativity and Artists; Clinical Dimensions of Loneliness; Loneliness/Solitude in the Psychoanalytic Training Process; Loneliness and Life Events testify to the encompassing scope of the inquiry into this relatively neglected, yet very important subject. A great many otherwise lonely ideas resonate with each other, enhancing our understanding of the breadth of this topic.