Perspect Biol Med. 2022;65(1):143-156. doi: 10.1353/pbm.2022.0009.
Preventing and reducing loneliness is crucial to well-being and good health. While long thought to be a problem specific to the elderly or infirm, over the past decade the prevalence of loneliness across age cohorts has become increasingly apparent, and calls for a systematic public health approach to the problem have grown louder. This essay uses Vivek Murthy's Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World (2020) as a point of departure to explore the value of human connection in general-and friendship in particular-as a means to both abating the pernicious individual and societal impact of loneliness and building a foundation for a renewal of the common good. Friendship as a form of human connection is then applied to understanding and addressing the overlapping mental health challenges of American college students and resettled refugee youth.
预防和减少孤独感对幸福感和健康至关重要。虽然长期以来，孤独感被认为是老年人或体弱者特有的问题，但在过去十年中，各年龄段人群的孤独感普遍明显增加，人们越来越呼吁采取系统的公共卫生方法来解决这一问题。本文以维维克·穆尔蒂的《在一起：在一个有时孤独的世界里，人类联系的治愈力量》（2020 年）为出发点，探讨人类联系的价值——特别是友谊的价值——作为减轻孤独感对个人和社会的有害影响的一种手段，并为重建共同利益奠定基础。然后，将友谊作为一种人类联系的形式，应用于理解和解决美国大学生和重新安置难民青年的重叠心理健康挑战。
