The Medicalization of Loneliness: Should We Cure It? Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

Using loneliness as a case study of contemporary social-emotional life, this thesis

demonstrates that medicalization has transitioned from a clinical process to a cultural one.

Though loneliness is not a modern problem, the interpretive frameworks through which it is

named and narrated have changed. Drawing from psychology, sociology, and philosophy, this

thesis traces how loneliness is increasingly understood through medicalized and DSM-inflected

language, particularly within digital environments, guiding interpretations toward biomedical

meanings. Loneliness is not reducible to aloneness or isolation, but emerges as a subjective,

relational condition that is increasingly rendered as a quasi-clinical state. Social media

intensifies this shift by circulating diagnostic vocabulary, encouraging self-classification, and

normalizing the diagnostic framing of ordinary emotional fluctuations. These platforms actively

structure how individuals interpret their experiences. I describe this process through the Digital

Loneliness Paradox: a self-reinforcing loop in which attempts to alleviate disconnection through

platform use provide immediate contact but often fail to produce the reciprocity and co-

presence that make connection reparative. Under these conditions, digital environments propel

individuals to transition from the episodic (“I feel”) to the medicalized identity (“I am”). I argue

that the medicalization of loneliness risks obscuring the need for relational repair with the

appeal of a label. Current responses often succeed in naming loneliness without resolving it. A

more adequate solution must attend to what remains missing between diagnosis and dismissal

by targeting the interactions between relational infrastructure and cognitive reappraisal. My

thesis concludes that loneliness is best addressed through reconstructing the social and

interpretative landscapes that sustain meaningful connection, rather than continuing to expand

diagnostic categories.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents:

INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 2

CHAPTER 1 – HISTORY AND LANGUAGE OF MEDICALIZATION................................... 10

Medicalization and Pathologization…………………....................................................... 10

Consequences........................................................................................................... 17

History of Medicalization…………............................................................................... 18

Language Use…………................................................................................................ 20

Concept Creep…………............................................................................................... 21

CHAPTER 2: LONELINESS......................................................................................... 23

Psychological Loneliness…………………....................................................................... 25

Loneliness through Evolutionary Biology .................................................................... 27

Philosophical Loneliness…………................................................................................ 32

Social Capital……………….…………............................................................................. 33

CHAPTER 3: DIGITAL LIFE AND MEDICALIZED LONELINESS LANGUAGE ................... 38

Digital Loneliness Paradox…………….......................................................................... 39

Concept Creep Applied..…………................................................................................. 44

Language………………………………………………............................................................ 48

Social Layer…………………………………………............................................................... 53

CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION / CONCLUSION……………………………………………………...… 56

Limitations……..……………………………………............................................................. 64

About this Honors Thesis

Rights statement

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School	Emory College
Department	Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, General Philosophy Sociology, General
Keyword	social capital wellbeing medicalization digital life identity concept creep loneliness
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Arri Eisen, Emory University
Committee Members	Jessica Barber, Emory University Ira Bedzow, Emory University

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