Fromm-Reichmann’s (1959/1990) Real Loneliness in the Contemporary United States

Abstract

In recent years, researchers have noted higher levels of loneliness among younger generations in the United States compared to Europe and Asia, and last year, the U.S. Surgeon General released an advisory about the nation’s loneliness epidemic. Sixty-five years ago, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann published a groundbreaking paper on the topic of real loneliness—which she described as uncommunicable, characterized by a high degree of experiential avoidance, and central in the etiology of psychopathology. Today, that conceptualization seems more relevant than ever and may be helpful for understanding the national differences in loneliness. To supplement Fromm-Reichmann’s recommendation to account for developmental history in real loneliness, in this article, I submit that a broader and deeper understanding of macro- and chronosystemic dimensions also is needed. I validate contextual factors that play into loneliness in the contemporary United States which are already discussed in the literature. Then I explore additional ones—technocracy and cultural disconnection, competitiveness at the expense of cooperation, and, consequently, psychological polarization.