[Characteristics of very socially isolated persons]

Out of a group of 269 elderly persons selected for their particularly modest financial means, 54 individuals stood out from the rest of the group on account of the extreme paucity of their social contacts. These persons were notable for the very small number of family links at their disposal, for making very little use of those that were available and also for their lack of recourse to compensatory links, such as contacts with neighbours, telephone calls, and participation in group activities. If these people had no friends, it was mainly because of their own inner attitude, since in fact there was practically no difference between them and the non-isolated persons with respect to former occupation, economic status, length of stay in Geneva and, with few exceptions, state of health. Only the status of divorce and, among women, the lack of an apprenticeship were factors obviously related to isolation. Remarkably, isolated persons were not older than non-isolated ones - on the contrary. All these observations show the need to explore in greater depth the psychological characteristics which lead certain individuals to live without contacts with other people.