Loneliness as a social and psychological phenomenon

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of loneliness as an objective and subjective situation, occurring at interaction of a person and the social environment. Three grounds for loneliness were considered: a) by the levels of interaction of a human with the surrounding world; b) by its duration; and c) by its origin (causes, factor structure). Within the first ground of the classification, four levels of loneliness situations are distinguished: a) physical (spatial) loneliness, which makes any forms of contacts of a person with other people impossible; b) communicative loneliness, which is observed during staying for a certain period among numerous unknown people; c) emotional loneliness, which takes place if one does not have close relations with people including any sexual relationship with someone from the social circle despite they contact and communicate with each other; d) spiritual loneliness, which is understood as absence of spiritual consensus of a person with anyone despite the existence of both interaction, communication and emotional contact. © IDOSI Publications, 2014.