Loneliness, Memory, and Trauma

Service Description

The CTI will host Professor Flavio Williges (UFSM, Brazil) & Dr Robert A Davies (University of York, UK) The speakers will give a short presentation, followed by plenty of time for questions, discussion, and shared reflection. Loneliness is seen as a form of emotional suffering arising from the absence of meaningful social engagement and interpersonal connection (e.g., emotional intimacy, sociability). This view rightly highlights important interpersonal dimensions of loneliness, but overlooks deeper and structurally disruptive forms of loneliness. We examine loneliness in trauma – particularly interpersonal trauma – drawing attention to two well-documented consequences of trauma: (i) the collapse of basic trust; (ii) the experience of intrusive memory symptoms. We argue that the fracturing of trust in post-traumatic loneliness is related to distressing memory experiences with distinctive characteristics. These include the disruption of ecognitional capacities, which leads to misattributions of sources of danger or threat (Davies, forthcoming). Persistent misrecognitions impair the formation and maintenance of close relationships in two ways: it becomes difficult to establish new trust, and existing trust becomes is easily “broken”. It undermines abilities to form meaningful relationships and frustrates attempts to establish “new” trust. It is thus a painful and distinctively resilient form of loneliness. We take this conclusion to be clinically relevant. - Professor Flavio Williges is Professor of Philosophy at Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, whose research focuses on emotions and issues related to the moral self. He is a member of the Brazilian Society of Analytic Philosophy and was recently a visiting professor at the University of York. - Dr Robert Anthony Davies is a Research Associate and Associate Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, University of York. His research focuses on memory and self-knowledge, with a particular focus on trauma and intrusive memories. He is currently the Secretary of the Philosophy of Memory Organization