The Lonely American Drifting Apart in the Twenty-first Century

The personal and societal effects of the unheralded epidemic of social isolation in America In our culture it's more socially acceptable to be depressed than to be lonely. Yet loneliness is the inevitable by-product of our frenetic contemporary lifestyle. In this marvelously acute critique of how we live, psychiatrists Jacqueline Olds and Richard S. Schwartz show how the American way of life can lead to social isolation. Calling on their extensive clinical experience, new social surveys, and recent research on the effects of social exclusion, Olds and Schwartz uncover the ripple effects of social isolation in areas as varied as physical health, children's emotional problems, substance abuse, violent crimeeven global warming. They conclude that electronic connection is no substitute for face-to-face interaction.

Jacqueline Olds, MD, and Richard S. Schwartz, MD, are associate clinical professors of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, each with thirty years of experience as clinicians and teachers. They live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.