Man is not meant to be alone

3289 Words7 Pages

And the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone...”
―Genesis 2:18
A true outsider is, in the end, exquisitely alone, and what a cruel and forlorn existence it is. In the deepest, darkest, coldest, and emptiest sense of the word, to be alone, truly alone― Dostoevsky said it best in the The Brothers Karamazov, writing,“What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.”(Dostoevsky, 1). To exist on the 'outside' is, by definition, to be excluded, marginalized, minimalized, unheard, unspoken to, unseen, unloved, and unnoticed. A soul, perpetually on the outside looking in, with not even the slightest glimmer of companionship or love within reach... is there a state of being more shattering to the human psyche?
Long before panels of psychologists deemed solitary confinement for any length of time inhumane and possibly deadly, humanity instinctively understood the trauma that prolonged isolation causes; only the very worst the world over are segregated from their fellow man. On a tour of Auburn state prison, one of the first to experiment with solitary confinement as discipline and/or rehabilitation, French political thinker and historian Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, “This absolute solitude, if nothing interrupt it, is beyond the strength of man... it does not reform; it kills. The unfortunates upon whom this experiment was made, fell into a state of depression, so manifest, that their keepers were struck with it; their lives seemed in danger, if they remained longer in this situation.”(Tocqueville, 2). Reporting to the General Assembly of the United Nations third committee almost two-hundred years later, UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan E. Méndez, said this, “Considering the sever...

... middle of paper ...

.... UN, 18 Oct. 2011. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.

4. Maslow http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/ss/maslows-needs-hierarchy.htm 5.Chanakya
Kauṭalya, and L. N. Rangarajan. "Relating to War." The Arthashastra. New Delhi: Penguin India, 1992. 640. Print.

6. Hawaii
"Grains of Sand on the World's Beaches." Grains of Sand on the World's Beaches. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.

7. NASA et al.
"How Many Stars Are There in the Universe?" Universe Today RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.
"Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A)." Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A). N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.
"NASA - Title..." NASA - Title... N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2013.

8. Eliot
"T. S. Eliot and Modern Poetic Drama." T. S. Eliot and Modern Poetic Drama. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.

9.Teresa
"Mother Teresa Saw Loneliness as Leprosy of the West." NewsTimes. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2013

Open Document