What does it mean to feel alone? Six Class Series (July-November 2022)
In this six-session course, we’ll explore the question: What does it mean to feel alone?
Together, we’ll explore the questions:
What does it mean to feel alone?
Are being alone and being lonely the same?
Can we be coupled, have a family or a strong community of friends, and still be lonely?
Is there a purpose for loneliness?
Can we live with the pain of loneliness without succumbing to it?
Books and films in the class series:
Over six class sessions, we’ll explore and discuss a range of books and films that get at themes of psychological and social isolation and loneliness. Learn about each course on the course page.
Class session 1 (Sunday, July 17, 2022, 4:30-6:00pm PST): Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and the film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Class session 2 (Sunday, Aug. 21, 2022 4:00-5:30PM, PST): The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Class session 3: (Sunday,Sept. 18, 2022, 4:00-5:30PM PST) Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre
Class session 4: (Sunday, October 23, 2022, 4:00-5:30PM PST) Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Class session 5 (Sunday, November 6, 2022 4:00-5:30PM PST)
Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“The Loneliness One dare not sound”, poem by Emily Dickinson
“On Solitude” , essay by Michel de Montaigne
Class session 6 (Sunday, December 11, 2022, 4:00-5:30PM PST):
“The Political Consequences of Loneliness and Isolation During the Pandemic” , an essay by Masha Gessen in The New Yorker
Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions by Johann Hari
Bonus Class Session 7 (DATE TBD): Hello, Stranger , non-fiction work by Will Buckingham. Will is on the Premise Board of Advisors and he’ll lead this session about his book and how we find connection in a disconnected world
About this six-session class series
The ideal: Participate in the full class series.
Students are invited to participate in each session in the class series. The enduring questions of the class will become deeper and more complex by participating in each session. Students come to know one another and connect more deeply through participation in the full series.
The cost of the full six-session series is $125 and includes the bonus session. If you’ve missed a class, don’t worry! We reduce the price of the series after each session.
Can’t make the full series? Participate as you are able.
If a student can’t participate in all sessions, we encourage students to attend any session they are able. We believe in low-barrier, flexible, and adaptive learning and community-making. Therefore, you are welcome whenever you can make it at Premise!
The pay-as-you-go session cost is $35/per session.
About this class series
Loneliness is central to the human experience. Yet, it can be hard to talk about loneliness and isolation because of social stigma. We may feel that loneliness is a personal failure. In her poem The Loneliness One dare not sound, Emily Dickinson writes loneliness is the “Horror not to be surveyed.”
Loneliness is baked into what it means to be human, and most of us will experience periods of loneliness in our lives. But, what does it mean to be lonely?
Even before the forced isolation of Covid-19, rates of loneliness were skyrocketing in the U.S. and around the world. More than 20%, in fact, of the adult population in America admits to struggling with loneliness regularly. That's more people than have diabetes in our country and more adults than smoke in the United States. Public health officials medicalize loneliness and refer to it as an epidemic.
Yet, philosophers and psychologists have long argued that loneliness is an essential part of the human condition.
Philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote, “Solitude is the human condition in which I keep myself company. Loneliness comes about when I am alone without being able to split up into the two-in-one, without being able to keep myself company.” The existentialist feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir embraced loneliness and thought of it as her creative force.