Touch Starvation: A Community Crisis

Humans need to be hugged, held, pat on the back. We need physical contact that reassures us we are safe and loved. Rampant carcerality and individualism stand to compromise this need on a massive scale. Get a 7-day free trial and 25% off Blinkist Annual Premium by clicking here: join the channel to get access to perks! follow me on instagram: editing by danae o.! Bibliography Heatley Tejada, A., Dunbar, R. I. M., & Montero, M. (2020). “Physical Contact and Loneliness: Being Touched Reduces Perceptions of Loneliness”. Adaptive human behavior and physiology, 6(3), 292–306. Cascio, C. J., Moore, D., & McGlone, F. (2019). “Social touch and human development”. Developmental cognitive neuroscience, 35, 5–11. Bianca London (2023). “Forget alpha, the ‘sigma male’ is the most-searched (and potentially dangerous) personality type, so what is it?”. Glamour magazine. “Solitary Confinement (Isolation)” (2016). National Commission on Correctional Health Care. Strong, J. D., Reiter, K., Gonzalez, G., Tublitz, R., Augustine, D., Barragan, M., Chesnut, K., Dashtgard, P., Pifer, N., & Blair, T. R. (2020). “The body in isolation: The physical health impacts of incarceration in solitary confinement”. PloS one, 15(10), e0238510. Tiana Herring (2020). “The research is clear: Solitary confinement causes long-lasting harm”. Prison Policy Initiative. Emily Green (2021). “The science behind human touch — and what happens when prisoners go without”. Street Roots. “Walled In” podcast, Episode 2. “After prison, ‘I had to relearn how to touch people’”. Street Roots. Thumbnail by Danae O. Reference: olisunvia - self-centredness is NOT “self-care“: losing the human face online