Abstract
In Western culture, the involuntary severance (through death, desertion, or geographical separation, for example) of a relationship defined by actor as “significant” or “meaningful” is generally conceived of as a “loss” experience. In this essay, I want to pursue the question: What is lost? Stated more positively, I want to ask what it is that humans do for one another? What links self to other, personality to society? I want to make, that is, a modest foray into those matters that psychologists typically pursue with such concepts as “attachment,” “affect,” and “separation anxiety,” and that sociologists pursue in their inquiries into the nature of the social bond.
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Lofland, L.H. (1982). Loss and Human Connection: An Exploration into the Nature of the Social Bond. In: Ickes, W., Knowles, E.S. (eds) Personality, Roles, and Social Behavior. Springer Series in Social Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9469-3_8
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