He then describes the population of the lonely, supported with alarming statistics of its prevalence. By exploring social science, evolution, biochemistry, medical findings, and more, he promotes the idea that we are “wired” to connect with others.
To make matters worse, there is the dehumanizing consequence of burnout, a chicken-and-egg relationship with loneliness.ĭuring his time as surgeon general, Murthy traveled the United States and overseas, meeting scientists, doctors, and a wealth of other people to explore facts and stories about loneliness. Murthy writes, “This shame is particularly acute in professional cultures like law and medicine, which promote self-reliance as a virtue” (p. Most people, perhaps physicians especially, do not want to admit that they are lonely. And certainly we have all seen the patient in the hospital who has no visitors, no phone calls and no one to care for them. Consider the elderly patient with overly frequent visits your office who loves to chat with you and your staff the angry adolescent experimenting with drugs because he has no peer crowd or the workaholic administrator, who is focused on climbing the ladder, is not caring for his health, and is estranged from his family. In a 2013 poll of general practitioners in the UK, 75% said they saw between one and five patients per day whose visit was primarily driven by loneliness (p. We see loneliness daily in our offices often without recognizing it.
As family physicians we learn how the social domain of life contributes to illness, but are not given tools to recognize loneliness. It was during his time as a young internal medicine resident that Murthy first noticed loneliness that burdened so many of his patients. Today, with social isolation and recommendations that we remain at home as much as possible, we are experiencing a surge in the loneliness epidemic Murthy brings to light. Murthy provides a comprehensive, well annotated, and insightful study of the epidemic of loneliness that he passionately argues is eroding public health. Ironically, this book was written in 2020 before we knew of the pandemic. Murthy, MD, who makes the case that we are experiencing an epidemic of loneliness. The author is the 19th United States Surgeon General Vivek H. There could not be a timelier book than Together-The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World. Publication Information: Broadway, NY, HarperCollins, 2020, 326 pp., $20.49, hardcover Book Title: Together-The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World
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