Loneliness and absence in psychopathology

Loneliness is a near-universal experience. It is particularly common for individuals with(so-called) psychopathological conditions or disorders. In this paper, we explore the experientialcharacter of loneliness, with a specific emphasis on how social goods are experienced as absentin ways that involve a diminished sense of agency and recognition. We explore the role andexperience of loneliness in three case studies: depression, anorexia nervosa, and autism. Wedemonstrate that even though experiences of loneliness might be common to many psychopathologies, these experiences nevertheless have distinctive profiles. Specifically, wesuggest that: (i) loneliness is often a core characteristic of depressive experience; (ii) lonelinesscan drive, and even cement, disordered eating practices and anorectic identity in anorexianervosa; iii) loneliness is neither a core characteristic of autism nor a driver but is rather commonly experienced as stemming from social worlds, environments, and norms that fail toaccommodate autistic bodies and their distinctive forms of life. We aim to do justice to the pervasiveness of loneliness in many — if not all — psychopathologies, while also highlightingthe need to attend to psychopathology-specific experiences of loneliness, agency, and(non-)recognition