“Today, millions of Americans are suffering from what my colleague Charles  Derber calls “double trouble”  Those in double trouble have neither meaningful work, nor sustaining intimate ties.  The withering of community life in both domains  fosters a rootlessness and social disintegration that unquestionably contributes to the growth of emotional disorders.”

SOURCE:  Copyright(c) David A. Karp. 1996.  Speaking of Sadness. Depression, disconnection, and the Meanings of Illness. Oxford University Press. p.  178.

Comment.  In Speaking of Sadness (which I highly recommend) Karp points out so persuasively how culture creates the disconnection that influences us  in our work lives and love lives. It is in his last chapters,  Sickness, Self and Society and Sociology, Spirituality, and Suffering he continues to assert the reality of postmodern life which is less and less connected and  more individualistic and manifests itself in   which individuals are disconnected  from one another.

Karp believes that it is in the small group where true community is formed.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?