A Model of Estrangement—Including a Theoretical Understanding of Loneliness

Abstract

A model for the understanding of the concept of loneliness is presented. Loneliness is said to have three parts: emotional estrangement or the experienced lack of intimacy, social estrangement or the experienced lack of relatedness to social environment, and existential loneliness which is the inevitable consequence of the human finiteness and ultimate aloneness. In addition, the concepts of self-estrangement, structural estrangement, and meaninglessness are also included in the model.