"Page0099" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bloom Howard - The Lucifer Principle (htm))

20

Social attachment is just as vital to human beings.  Research

psychiatrist Dr. George Engel collected 275 newspaper accounts of

sudden death.  He discovered that 156 had been caused by  severe

damage to social ties.  One hundred and thirty five deaths had been

triggered by "a traumatic event in a close human relationship."

Another 21 had been brought on by "loss of status, humiliation, failure

or defeat."  In one instance, the president of a college had been forced

to retire by the Board of Trustees at the age of 59.  As he delivered his

final speech, he collapsed with a heart attack.  One of his closest

friends, a doctor, rushed to the stage to save him.  But the strain of

losing his companion was too much for the physician.  He, too, fell to

the floor of the platform and died of heart failure.48

Our need for each other is not only built into the foundation of

our biological structure, it is also the cornerstone of our psyche.

Humans are so uncontrollably social that when we're wandering

around at home where no one can see us, we talk to ourselves.  When

we smash our thumb with a hammer we curse to no one in particular.

In a universe whose heavens seem devoid of living matter, we address

ourselves skyward to gods, angels and the occasional extra-terrestrial.49

Our need for other people shapes even the minor details of our

lives.  In the early 1980s, a group of architects decided to study the use

of public spaces outside modern office buildings.  For over twenty

years, architects had assumed that people long for moments of quiet

contemplation, walled off from the bustle of the world.  As a

consequence, they had planned their buildings with solitary courtyards

separated from the street.  What the architects discovered, to their

astonishment, was that people shunned their secluded spots.  Instead,

they parked themselves on low walls and steps near the packed

sidewalks.  Humans, it seemed, had an inordinate desire to gawk at

others of their kind.50

Even mere distortions in the bonds of social connectedness can

affect health.  According to a study by J. Stephen Heisel of the Charles

River Hospital in Boston, the activity of natural killer cells--the body's

defenders from disease--is low for people who, on the Minnesota

20

Social attachment is just as vital to human beings.  Research

psychiatrist Dr. George Engel collected 275 newspaper accounts of

sudden death.  He discovered that 156 had been caused by  severe

damage to social ties.  One hundred and thirty five deaths had been

triggered by "a traumatic event in a close human relationship."

Another 21 had been brought on by "loss of status, humiliation, failure

or defeat."  In one instance, the president of a college had been forced

to retire by the Board of Trustees at the age of 59.  As he delivered his

final speech, he collapsed with a heart attack.  One of his closest

friends, a doctor, rushed to the stage to save him.  But the strain of

losing his companion was too much for the physician.  He, too, fell to

the floor of the platform and died of heart failure.48

Our need for each other is not only built into the foundation of

our biological structure, it is also the cornerstone of our psyche.

Humans are so uncontrollably social that when we're wandering

around at home where no one can see us, we talk to ourselves.  When

we smash our thumb with a hammer we curse to no one in particular.

In a universe whose heavens seem devoid of living matter, we address

ourselves skyward to gods, angels and the occasional extra-terrestrial.49

Our need for other people shapes even the minor details of our

lives.  In the early 1980s, a group of architects decided to study the use

of public spaces outside modern office buildings.  For over twenty

years, architects had assumed that people long for moments of quiet

contemplation, walled off from the bustle of the world.  As a

consequence, they had planned their buildings with solitary courtyards

separated from the street.  What the architects discovered, to their

astonishment, was that people shunned their secluded spots.  Instead,

they parked themselves on low walls and steps near the packed

sidewalks.  Humans, it seemed, had an inordinate desire to gawk at

others of their kind.50

Even mere distortions in the bonds of social connectedness can

affect health.  According to a study by J. Stephen Heisel of the Charles

River Hospital in Boston, the activity of natural killer cells--the body's

defenders from disease--is low for people who, on the Minnesota