The Prototype of a Lonely Person

The concept of the lonely person is not well defined. Its meaning varies somewhat from person to person, and people seem to apply different standards when they judge loneliness in themselves and in others. Therefore, when people say "~I feel lonely," their intended meanings are not precise. Three people beginning psychotherapy with a complaint of loneliness may have quite distinct problems in mind: One may be experiencing an awkwardness in initiating social contacts, another may be experiencing deep feelings of inferiority and inadequacy, a third may be experielH:ing existential feelings of separateness and alienation. Because of this diversity in meaning, some method is needed that not only describes the "average" meaning b'ut also allows us to describe variability in people's usage. Our goal in this chapter is to provide such a description. We will deseribe the major features of a lonely person and show how these features can be organized into a "cognitive structure." This organized set of features will comprise the prototype of a lonely person, which will describe the "average meaning" of the concept and also allow us to characterize variability in its usage.