Loneliness Is a Modern Invention. Understanding That History Can Help Us Get Through This Pandemic

Loneliness in lockdown is easily explained by those who note that, as the much-quoted neuroscientist John Cacioppo put it, we are wired for intimacy. Humans have a biological need to be in social groups and loneliness tells us we have a physical need for human contact.

Yet this biological approach ignores the histories of the body, and emotions.