Wednesday, May 22, 2013
About Mars Hill Audio
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| In his book Shades of Loneliness: Pathologies of a Technological Society, professor Richard Stivers addresses the relationships between mental and emotional disorders and loneliness, and between technological society and loneliness. Stivers refers to the work of J. H. van den Berg when discussing the former; van den Berg, he explains, argues that loneliness is the cause of most mental and emotional disorders. In turn such disorders reveal widespread loneliness, and it is no mere coincidence, says Stivers, that they are rife in today's technological society. Unlike some psychologists and psychiatrists who ignore society as a contributing factor when treating people with mental and emotional illnesses (focusing instead on their individual personality types and family relationships), Stivers pays it much heed. He asserts that the very organization of technological society ought to bear much of the blame for the loneliness that leads to the disorders. |  Shades of Loneliness: Pathologies of a Technological Society (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004) |
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| Richard Stivers has contributed to multiple editions of the Journal; click here for his record. | Technology and Culture Mental Health Mental Illness |