Extract from 'Loneliness: In Harm’s Way*' I attended this symposium and these are the verbatim notes of a talk at Brunel University, London on 30th October 2015: The speaker wished to convey four things: (a) that all human
beings are innately and universally lonely; (b) why
this is so; (c) the consequences of loneliness; and (d) what can be done about
it - its remedies!
"The twin principles I propose to defend are that all
we feel, think, say, and do occurs between two emotional and cognitive poles in
human consciousness, between the solipsistic insularity of loneliness and the
intentional desire to transcend it by attaining intimate attachments. The two
terminals of consciousness constitute the dynamics of repulsion and attraction,
which continually guide us through our passions, thoughts, and actions. After
the biological drives for air, water, nourishment, sleep—and before sex---are
met, the most insistent psychological need and motivational drive in human
beings is to secure an intimate relation to other self-conscious creatures,
whether animal, human, or divine. In effect, I wish to replace Freud’s principle
of libidinal energy with the anxiety of isolation.
