Scan barcode
A review by carpentoid
A Philosophy of Loneliness by Lars Svendsen
3.0
While Svendsen does not seem to intend this to be a self-help book, this is by far the best self-help book I've read. Svendsen makes good use of both quantitative data and past philosophical conjectures to create a broad (but not full) picture of loneliness, love, and other universal aspects of humans. Unlike every other self-help book I've read, there is almost no redundancy whatsoever. Every page is filled with meaningful, useful, or at least interesting information.
My one gripe is that despite Svendsen himself even admitting that the current scientific literature on loneliness is insufficient, he still goes on to use many of those unreliable studies as the basis for his own dubious assertions, which is especially apparent in chapter 3 (Who are the Lonely?) and 6 (Individualism and Loneliness).
But aside from that, this is certainly one of the few books that I can say for sure has made a noticeable impact on my daily life.
My one gripe is that despite Svendsen himself even admitting that the current scientific literature on loneliness is insufficient, he still goes on to use many of those unreliable studies as the basis for his own dubious assertions, which is especially apparent in chapter 3 (Who are the Lonely?) and 6 (Individualism and Loneliness).
But aside from that, this is certainly one of the few books that I can say for sure has made a noticeable impact on my daily life.