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    Close-up of a Loner - Biographical and Etiological Correlates
    Close-up of a Loner - Biographical and Etiological Correlates
    Close-up of a Loner - Biographical and Etiological Correlates
    Ebook106 pages1 hour

    Close-up of a Loner - Biographical and Etiological Correlates

    By Willem Martens

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    About this ebook

    This book provides a brief overview of the literature on the determinants of social isolation and its positive and negative effects. I examine the relationship between loneliness and being a loner. The relationship between loneliness and mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and personality disorders are also investigated. Furthermore, self-reports of various groups of loners are analyzed and discussed regarding their positive and negative experiences and the consequences these experiences had on their further development. It appears that many young people who were loners in their youth (many of whom were bullied and rejected) ended up later well in social and economic terms. However, many of them still appear to suffer to a greater or lesser extent from the negative experiences of social exclusion, bullying, and rejection. It is completely different for the category loners that voluntarily chose social isolation, often periodically, because they reported mainly about positive experiences.
    This book focuses specifically on information from case reports and an extensive self-report of a forensic psychiatric patient with mixed personality disorder in which the fatal effect of social exclusion becomes clear.
     

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWillem Martens
    Release dateDec 3, 2024
    ISBN9798230413318
    Close-up of a Loner - Biographical and Etiological Correlates
    Author

    Willem Martens

    Martens studied counterpoint, harmony, composition and film music between 1968 and 1972 with Nadia Boulanger and Darius Milhaud at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris in France. He participated in the 1970 Master Class "Music Concrete" of Pierre Schaeffer. Martens is a BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) member. Between 1969 and 1978 he was appointed as Music Supervisor/Coordinator and film composer by the French network. Afterward, he studied between 1978 and 1983 Philosophy and Clinical Psychopathology at Amsterdam University, and in 1985 he completed his study and training in psychoanalysis with Paul-Laurent Assoun (in Paris). In 1997 he earned his PhD Forensic Psychiatry at Tilburg University, The Netherlands. Martens wrote more than 100 articles in international journals and chapters of books. He is a member of the Royal College of |Psychiatrists, UK (Philosophy Group). Since 1996 he has been Chair of the W Kahn Institute of Theoretical Psychiatry and Neuroscience.  

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      Book preview

      Close-up of a Loner - Biographical and Etiological Correlates - Willem Martens

      Willem H. J. Martens MD, PhD

      Chair of W. Kahn Institute of Theoretical Psychiatry and Neuroscience

      Copyright © 2024 Willem H. J. Martens

      All rights reserved.

      This book is dedicated to my wife, children, and all the loners in the world

      About the Author

      Martens studied counterpoint, harmony, composition and film music between 1968 and 1972 with Nadia Boulanger and Darius Milhaud at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris in France. He participated in the 1970 Master Class Music Concrete of Pierre Schaeffer. Martens is a BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) member. Between 1969 and 1978 he was appointed as Music Supervisor/Coordinator and film composer by the French network. Afterward, he studied between 1978 and 1983 Philosophy and Clinical Psychopathology at Amsterdam University, and in 1985 he completed his study and training in psychoanalysis with Paul-Laurent Assoun (in Paris). In 1997 he earned his PhD Forensic Psychiatry at Tilburg University, The Netherlands. Martens wrote more than 100 articles in international journals and chapters of books. He is a member of the Royal College of |Psychiatrists, UK (Philosophy Group). Since 1996 he has been Chair of the W Kahn Institute of Theoretical Psychiatry and Neuroscience.

      Foreword

      What exactly do we mean by a loner? According to the Webster dictionary, a loner is a person who is often alone or likes to be alone: ​​someone who usually avoids the company of others. I would like to expand this definition with a category of loners who have not chosen to be. This last group consists of loners who are socially excluded because of various reasons such as origin, sexual orientation, deviant behavior, clumsy or insecure behavior, strange hobbies and activities, deviant appearance, etc. Such involuntary and long-term social exclusion and rejection often leads to traumatic experiences and these affected persons can end up in a downward and run the risk of showing increasingly deviant behavior. As a psychoanalyst and researcher in forensic psychiatric institutions, I had often to deal with patients who were typical loners due to their social-emotional incapacities. They committed offenses that were related to their social isolation in combination with their mental disorder. One of these patients was Daniel D., a middle-aged, highly gifted man with mixed personality disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), with whom I had built a good relationship. He had been sentenced to forensic psychiatric treatment for the murder of his ex-wife's partner who had abused his daughter for 10 years. In the last phase of his treatment, during his probation, he gave me a handwritten report and analysis of his life and development with the intention that I could incorporate it into one of my publications. I read it and saw how valuable this information could be for outsiders to gain insight into the complexity of the history and developmental process of such a patient. In his self-report, it became clear what a significant role his periodic forced social exclusion and self-imposed social isolation played in his development. After my retirement, I gradually felt the desire to process Daniel D.'s report in a book about loners. He permitted me to use his report for this book. I use the stories and case reports of other young and adult loners in addition to Daniel D.'s report and analysis as well as data from scientific research into the determinants of loneliness and the nature of various types of loners.

      Summary

      This book provides a brief overview of the literature on the determinants of social isolation and its positive and negative effects. I examine the relationship between loneliness and being a loner. The relationship between loneliness and mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and personality disorders are also investigated. Furthermore, self-reports of various groups of loners are analyzed and discussed regarding their positive and negative experiences and the consequences these experiences had on their further development. It appears that many young people who were loners in their youth (many of whom were bullied and rejected) ended up later well in social and economic terms. However, many of them still appear to suffer to a greater or lesser extent from the negative experiences of social exclusion, bullying, and rejection. It is completely different for the category loners that voluntarily chose social isolation, often periodically, because they reported mainly about positive experiences.

      This book focuses specifically on information from case reports and an extensive self-report of a forensic psychiatric patient with mixed personality disorder in which the fatal effect of social exclusion becomes clear.

      Chapter 1 - Dimensions of Loneliness and Being a Loner

      What is Loneliness?

      There are various definitions of loneliness, but the following definition seems to be most suitable for my study. Loneliness is an aversive feeling of being alone that arises from the subjective perception of unsatisfactory social relationships (Peplau & Perlman, 1982), isolation, or lack of companionship (Burton, 2019). Most people experience loneliness at some point during their life (Qualter et al., 2015) with particularly vulnerable phases in young adulthood and old age Hawkley et al., 2022). In a recent Europe-wide study, 9% of respondents said they feel occasionally lonely (d’Hombres et al., 2021). Furthermore, it appears that loneliness shows great stability across the life span comparable to personality traits (Mund et al., 2020). 

      Loneliness is often associated with suffering, and throughout history, solitary confinement has been used as a form of torture and punishment. More than just painful, loneliness is also damaging. Lonely people eat and drink more and exercise and sleep less. They are at higher risk of developing psychological and psychiatric problems, such as depression, psychosis, and addiction, as well as physical problems, such as infection, cancer, and cardiovascular disease (Burton, 2019).

      Burton (2019) suggests that loneliness is a particular problem of modernity. One U.S. study found that between 1985 and 2004, the proportion of people reporting having no one to confide is almost tripled. According to a poll carried out in 2017 for the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness, three-quarters of older people in the U.K. are lonely. Shockingly, two-fifths of respondents agreed with the statement, sometimes an entire day goes by, and I haven’t spoken to anybody *Burton, 2019)

      Link Between Loneliness and Being a Loner

      The concepts of loneliness and being alone might sound similar but there’s a fine line between them. Although most people think being alone is a good thing, most people see loneliness as a negative effect. While depending upon the personality of a person, being alone can also be negative. The background studies show that there are multiple types of loner personality which can be positive or negative. While the types of loneliness suggest only negative feelings of isolation. Solitude, on the other hand, is more associated with active and voluntary social withdrawal. However, both loneliness and solitude are subjective concepts and can vary from person to person. These two being contrasting concepts, leads to polarity among people. While solitude seekers take great pride in considering themselves as so, lonely people feel the exact opposite. Some even get confused between the two, and end up wrongly labeling themselves and others. Introverts are often seen as loners. Extroverts are often seen to suffer from loneliness when they lack that social stimulation. But this doesn’t guarantee any rigidness of any personality type. An introvert can equally feel lonely at some point of time. Likewise, an extrovert can seek solitude according to their need (Psychlogs, 2023).

      Types of Loners

      Loners can be divided in following five types:

      ● Intentional positive loner- Somebody who chooses to be alone for positive intentions.

      ● Intentional negative loner- Somebody who chooses to be alone, either because it might look cool or might serve antisocial purposes.

      ● Unintentional loner- Somebody who wants to socialize but didn’t get enough scope of it, due to lack of social skills or negative habits.

      ● The short-term loner- Somebody who takes time off from others to enjoy solitude and

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