Loneliness, Grief, and the Lack of Belonging

TY - CHAP

T1 - Loneliness, Grief, and the Lack of Belonging

AU - Ratcliffe, Matthew James

PY - 2022/5/31

Y1 - 2022/5/31

N2 - It seems plausible to maintain that loneliness involves experiencing the lack or absence of something. However, it is less clear what, exactly, is experienced as missing. In this chapter, I take my lead from the phenomenologist and psychiatrist, J. H. van den Berg, who emphasizes a distinctive way of experiencing one’s surroundings. By drawing on some first-person accounts of loneliness in the context of bereavement, I identify a sense of exclusion or detachment from social situations as central to this, something that can equally be described in terms of not belonging. I sketch a phenomenological analysis that emphasizes how we experience possibilities. Certain social and interpersonal possibilities, I propose, appear as accessible to others, but inaccessible to me.

AB - It seems plausible to maintain that loneliness involves experiencing the lack or absence of something. However, it is less clear what, exactly, is experienced as missing. In this chapter, I take my lead from the phenomenologist and psychiatrist, J. H. van den Berg, who emphasizes a distinctive way of experiencing one’s surroundings. By drawing on some first-person accounts of loneliness in the context of bereavement, I identify a sense of exclusion or detachment from social situations as central to this, something that can equally be described in terms of not belonging. I sketch a phenomenological analysis that emphasizes how we experience possibilities. Certain social and interpersonal possibilities, I propose, appear as accessible to others, but inaccessible to me.

M3 - Chapter

BT - Phenomenology of Belonging

A2 - Dolezal, Luna

A2 - Petherbridge, Danielle

PB - SUNY Press

CY - Albany

ER -