Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
o<strong>the</strong>r animals, chiefly due to <strong>the</strong>ir superior ability to work toge<strong>the</strong>r. Human bra<strong>in</strong>s are wired to connect—<br />
magnetic resonance imag<strong>in</strong>g shows that <strong>the</strong> same neural circuitry that causes us to feel physical pa<strong>in</strong> is<br />
activated when we face social pa<strong>in</strong>, like be<strong>in</strong>g shunned from a group or picked last on <strong>the</strong> playground.<br />
Harry Harlow, a psychology professor at <strong>the</strong> University of Wiscons<strong>in</strong>, ran a series of experiments<br />
start<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1950s, show<strong>in</strong>g that young rhesus monkeys, when isolated from o<strong>the</strong>r monkeys for as little as<br />
three months, could be behaviorally damaged for life. Bra<strong>in</strong> scans of war prisoners <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> former Yugoslavia<br />
demonstrated that without susta<strong>in</strong>ed social <strong>in</strong>teraction, a bra<strong>in</strong> can become as <strong>in</strong>jured as one that has<br />
<strong>in</strong>curred a traumatic blow. Upon be<strong>in</strong>g taken captive, John McCa<strong>in</strong> had two broken arms and a broken leg,<br />
and later developed chronic dysentery, but <strong>the</strong> pa<strong>in</strong> of lonel<strong>in</strong>ess, he implied, was worse.<br />
Our <strong>in</strong>herent and environmentally stimulated sociability may have made our bra<strong>in</strong>s grow so large <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
first place. “Read<strong>in</strong>g and <strong>in</strong>terpret<strong>in</strong>g social cues,” noted social neuroscientist John Cacioppo, “is, for any of<br />
us, at any time, a demand<strong>in</strong>g and cognitively complex activity.” <strong>The</strong> need to recognize <strong>the</strong> constantly shift<strong>in</strong>g<br />
status of friends and foes, to act for <strong>the</strong> betterment of a group when it isn’t <strong>in</strong> your immediate self-<strong>in</strong>terest,<br />
to understand how to reason and cajole and deceive, likely gave rise to an expanded cerebral cortex, which,<br />
<strong>in</strong> turn, resulted <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> dom<strong>in</strong>ance of humans.<br />
Fur<strong>the</strong>r, evolution selected genes that re<strong>in</strong>force pleasure and safety <strong>in</strong> company, and unease and fear when<br />
alone. Unwanted lonel<strong>in</strong>ess makes you sick—social isolation is as damag<strong>in</strong>g as high blood pressure, obesity,<br />
or smok<strong>in</strong>g as a risk factor for illness and early death. “Happ<strong>in</strong>ess for a member of <strong>the</strong> human species<br />
demands connection,” wrote Cacioppo. “Our bra<strong>in</strong>s and bodies are designed to function <strong>in</strong> aggregates, not <strong>in</strong><br />
isolation.”<br />
Connectivity and cooperation transcend humans; <strong>the</strong>se traits extend to <strong>the</strong> most ancient forms of life.<br />
Many animals display extreme devotion to group bond<strong>in</strong>g and social good. <strong>The</strong>re are hives, flocks, herds,<br />
schools, gaggles, troops, packs, bands, bevies, coveys, and droves. (<strong>The</strong>re are also lone wolves and solitary<br />
apes and even hermitlike wasps, but <strong>the</strong>se are exceptions to <strong>the</strong> general rule of <strong>the</strong> animal k<strong>in</strong>gdom.)<br />
Salmonella bacteria work toge<strong>the</strong>r, secret<strong>in</strong>g signal<strong>in</strong>g molecules that help <strong>the</strong>m determ<strong>in</strong>e <strong>the</strong> opportune<br />
moment to collectively attack a host. By <strong>the</strong> time a human <strong>in</strong>fant is eight months old, attachments to o<strong>the</strong>rs<br />
have already been formed. It’s only Knight, and his fellow solitaries throughout history, who are puzzl<strong>in</strong>g<br />
anomalies.<br />
After his arrest and <strong>in</strong>carceration, Knight craved solitary conf<strong>in</strong>ement. “I have a hope, wish, fantasy of a<br />
cell of my own,” he wrote <strong>in</strong> one of his letters. “And to th<strong>in</strong>k this would be considered punishment. It is to<br />
laugh.” But not aloud—Knight always made sure to laugh silently, <strong>in</strong>ternally. He worried that if he were seen<br />
gr<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> jail, amused by a thought <strong>in</strong> his head, it would be considered fur<strong>the</strong>r proof of his<br />
feeblem<strong>in</strong>dedness.<br />
For his first several months <strong>in</strong> jail, Knight had a cellmate, with whom he scarcely exchanged a word.<br />
When he was f<strong>in</strong>ally transferred to a s<strong>in</strong>gle cell, he was much relieved.<br />
Isolation is <strong>the</strong> raw material of greatness; be<strong>in</strong>g alone is hazardous to our health. Few o<strong>the</strong>r conditions<br />
produce such diametrically oppos<strong>in</strong>g reactions, though of course genius and craz<strong>in</strong>ess often share a fence<br />
l<strong>in</strong>e. Sometimes even voluntary solitude can send a person over to <strong>the</strong> wrong side of <strong>the</strong> fence.<br />
In 1988, a cave explorer named Véronique Le Guen volunteered for an extreme experiment: to live alone<br />
<strong>in</strong> an underground cavern <strong>in</strong> sou<strong>the</strong>rn France without a clock for one hundred and eleven days, monitored by<br />
scientists who wished to study <strong>the</strong> human body’s natural rhythms <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> absence of time cues. For a while,<br />
she settled <strong>in</strong>to a pattern of thirty hours awake and twenty hours asleep. She described herself as be<strong>in</strong>g