Identity and Loneliness across the Life Cycle

The East Delhi-based Pushpanjali Medical Centre recently organised a public health lecture on “Identity and Loneliness across the Life Cycle.” Dr Shekhar Seshadri, a former Senior Professor and HOD at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bengaluru, delivered the speech. According to Dr Seshadri, loneliness is a common experience which is associated with various adverse physical and mental health outcomes. Despite an increasing body of research focusing on loneliness, there is relatively little work exploring its lived experience.

Loneliness is generally defined as an unpleasant and distressing subjective phenomenon which arises when one’s desired level of social relations differs from their actual level in number or quality.

Dr Shekhar Seshadri, who is also the elder brother of famous cine star Meenakshi Seshadri, believes that the research lacks an overarching subjective perspective, which is a significant gap in the field, given that loneliness is an inherently subjective experience. Unlike age, blood pressure, or other objective phenomena, loneliness can only be definitively evaluated by asking a person whether they feel lonely. As experts argue, although existing definitions of loneliness may be helpful, they fail to reflect the actual nature of loneliness because they define it in terms of potential causes rather than the actual experience of being lonely. Studies based on these definitions may therefore obscure the ways that loneliness is actually experienced, potentially failing to capture aspects and idiosyncrasies of the construct. Indeed, eminent researchers in the field have recently noted that there is not yet a widespread consensus on definitions of loneliness.

Dr Seshadri emphasised that a robust understanding of the phenomenon is key to achieving suitable definitions and informing approaches to studying and ameliorating loneliness. He said that in the present era, loneliness is a fundamentally subjective experience that is common at various life stages. Studies have qualitatively explored loneliness, but a comprehensive overview is lacking. This research therefore provides a fine-grained review of studies on loneliness experiences across the lifespan.

Dr Shekhar Seshadri is a child psychiatrist with over 35 years of experience in child mental health. As a former Senior Professor at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, NIMHANS, his work has impacted children and childcare institutions across India and South Asia. His areas of expertise include childhood trauma, gender and sexuality issues, and life skills education. An artist and musician, Dr Seshadri incorporates creative methodologies, such as theatre, into his mental health interventions. He believes that psychosocial interventions must be grounded in child rights, which has led him to engage in various legal and policy initiatives. He contributed to the drafting of the POCSO Act 2012 and actively participated in debates on the Juvenile Justice Act 2015.

On this occasion, Dr Vinay Aggarwal, Chairman of Pushpanjali Medical Centre, said the purpose of organising such a public health lecture is to create awareness among society. As per reports, population health has shown that loneliness poses a threat to health as severe as smoking and obesity. This has prompted the creation of public health initiatives to understand and tackle loneliness within the context of local communities. These typically identify poor community cohesion and integration as contributing factors to loneliness and increased social integration as part of the solution. However, such policies are rarely grounded in an in-depth understanding of the complex relationships between community belonging, loneliness, and health. This is addressed by Social Psychology’s Social Identity Approach to Health, commonly referred to as the ‘Social Cure.’

Dr Vinay Aggarwal claims that Pushpanjali Hospital offers world-class care with compassion. The care is amply reflected through the globally comparable medical facilities at Pushpanjali and the compassion that is inherent in each and every consultant and staff member present there. “With great courage and achievement, we are in the process of meeting our targets by providing the latest medical equipment for IVF, trauma care, and heart and knee implants,” he said.