Loneliness: counseling adolescents

This paper discusses the related concepts of loneliness and the guidance counseling of adolescents. Part One argues that the fear of loneliness and the accompanying need to avoid it constitutes a universal motivational principle in all human beings, and that it is especially acute during adolescence. Part Two shows how loneliness may serve the counselor as a basis for understanding and interpreting much of adolescent behavior. Part Three proposes some therapeutic principles and procedures designed to alleviate the sense of loneliness and isolation so prevalent among contemporary adolescents.