Isolation as a form of torture?

This really hit home in this article from the Tablet, and why we do what we do at Heroic Men:

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Recently, a Gallup Poll stated that a quarter of the world’s population suffers from loneliness. The survey was done in 142 countries, and what is rather startling is that the highest rates of loneliness are found among those between the ages of 19-29, while older people suffer less from loneliness, with the majority of those 65 and older saying that they don’t feel at all lonely. With the many means of communication available to and in use among the young, we might be surprised to learn of this apparently widespread feeling of loneliness.

In our western culture, there have been warnings about the rising tide of loneliness. In 2004, St. Teresa of Kolkata said, “In the West there is a loneliness, which I call the leprosy of the West. In many ways, it is worse than our poor in Calcutta.” The Gallup Poll was published last month, but earlier this year, I published an article, One Hand Clapping, on the isolation in our culture. Isolation is a form of unphysical solitary confinement, and solitary confinement that lasts more than 14 days is listed as a form of torture.