Loneliness is a historically specific condition

Loneliness has become a "plague," and "epidemic" that strikes young and old. But loneliness is not a universal human condition. It is a historically specific one.

Before 1800, the word loneliness was not really used in the English language. Where it was used, it meant the same as oneliness - the state of being one or single. Trees were lonely; roads were lonely. Before the 19th century, people did live alone, but they weren't lonely.

Loneliness requires two thing:

1. A lack of meaning in one's relationships
2. A sense of the self as separate from others

In pre-modern society, religion gave meaning to all existence. God was always there. But modernity br...