UCLA Journal of Radiation Oncology_SS 2025_FOR PRINT - Flipbook - Page 11
UCLA RADIATION ONCOLOGY JOURNAL
It should be noted that even the seemingly most successful or
I enter into the lives of, and they enter mine, and that sort of
happy people we know might be lonely, from occasionally to
conversation of where we meet is, I think, a kind of ethical and
chronically, without anyone being aware. Deming may appear
empathic possibility for connection.” Within that connection is
to others as someone who must never encounter loneliness: he
the opportunity to recognize and imagine the su昀昀ering of others,
is married to his beloved, teaches, and directs the undergrad
to have empathy for, and, perhaps, to relate to and connect with
Creative Writing department at Yale, and is celebrated and
others. Through these connections, writing This Exquisite
honored for his writing. But no one person can cover all our
Loneliness was also a way to explore his own past and present
needs, and there are inevitably times when the person or persons
lonelinesses and, perhaps most importantly, to add his voice to
we very much want to interact with is unable to reciprocate. There
the international conversation on loneliness, to extend his hand
are times that necessitate we travel alone or even travel abroad
and his voice to help others to enter and engage in this “existential
solo, or are at work and dealing with a particularly trying situation
condition.” As Deming states in the introduction to his book,
but feel isolated and unable to reach out. And so, too, we need to
“Reading, looking at art, can be a way of scanning the horizon for
recognize that while to be alone does not mean one is lonely—just
any sign that one isn’t alone. That signal can also lead the way for
as solitude is a state self-chosen and appreciated whereas isolation
others to 昀椀nd their own form of rescue.”
is not—it is possible to feel lonely when surrounded by others,
This type of engagement is what Susan Magsamen and Ivy
even those we hold most dear, and even if the rest of the world
Ross encourage in Your Brain on Art and their work with
thinks we are thriving.
NeuroArts Blueprint as a way to create positive salient
So how do we go about ensuring we are having ful昀椀lling
experiences in our Default Mode Network, or the “seat of
connections to abate loneliness and perhaps the isolation that
self,” where new perceptions are formed and where our natural
might come with it? Since Deming doesn’t know if there is
storytelling originates. They further posit that it is possible to
a cure, in This Exquisite Loneliness he investigates how six
strengthen our executive function and well-being by allowing
artists, writers, and thinkers (Freud protégé Melanie Klein,
our brains to rewrite our narratives, to lift out of depression and
anthropologist and writer Zora Neale Hurston, German
times of hardship by engaging our Default Mode Network.
philosopher Walter Benjamin, photographer Walker Evans,
In conversation with BYU’s professor of psychology and
painter Egon Schiele, and television writer and actor Rod
neuroscience and director of the Social Connection and Health
Sterling) create from their di昀昀erent circumstances and situations
Lab, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD, on a 2022 episode of Sanjay
of loneliness (and sometimes isolation) in a way that intentionally
Gupta’s Chasing Life podcast, Holt-Lunstad states that chronic
or unintentionally connects them with others, how they engage
loneliness leads to a 26% increase and living alone a 32% increase
in neuroaesthetic endeavors to understand and/or express their
in premature mortality (although she has a caveat that further
state. Through the process of writing, Deming puts himself in
investigation is needed to see if percentages di昀昀er for the people
conversation with these six individuals, generations removed,
living alone out of choice, i.e. are seeking solitude rather than that
which Deming sees as “a way of understanding and reaching
they are isolated). She goes on to say that their research has found
out to others in this sort of paradoxical way, and so that to 昀椀nd
that there is more gray matter in the Default Mode Network,
and wrestle with materials of art or philosophy or writing means
and their theory is that the brain, compensating for a lack of
an engagement with a conversation that's going on with all
interaction, actively creates stories and reminisces.
these books that are around me. These are all voices that then
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