The Loneliness Cure: Six Strategies for Finding Real Connections in Your Life

Arizona State Universityprofessor Floyd (Interpersonal Communication) turns his academic research on affection into a self-help book for the lay reader. According to the author, "three out of four American adults agree that Americans are affection deprived," and furthermore, "we touch our cellphones more than we touch each other." "Affection hunger" is the state of receiving less affection than one wants or needs. The need varies, depending on culture, nature, and nurture. Who tops the affection-deprived list? Single, neurotic, Asian-American males earning good livings in Germany or on one of the U.S. coasts. The author looks at affection as more than simple physical contact, dividing it, broadly speaking, into two categories: instrumental (activities or behaviors that show affection) and expressive (physical or verbal). Kory divides the book into three parts that show how and why humans need affection and often lack it, help readers evaluate their level of affection hunger, and give six strategies for satisfying that hunger and banishing loneliness. His colloquial style combines anecdotes, questions for the reader to reflect on, and explanations of the research he conducted. This book is perhaps reductive in its approach to knotty emotional problems, but it is nonetheless thought-provoking. Agent: Linda Konner, Linda Konner Literary. (May)