Paris (France) (AFP) – “We are unbound,” alarms essayist Chloé Morin, who dissects in a book “the system” producing “loneliness at all levels” and calls on political leaders to address this “central question” during the presidential election.

Published on: 02/10/2026 - 09:06

Media specialist in opinion analysis and public communication, Chloé Morin decided to write "Déliés" (Editions de l'Observatoire), wondering how "the behavior of people in the streets, offices or homes had changed so quickly". With "headphones on", "eyes glued to the phone" or "falling asleep while scrolling"...

For her, the word “loneliness”, used in numerous studies on the phenomenon, “does not say exactly what we are experiencing”.

"People don't really feel alone. They are connected, reachable and even over-demanded. (...) They are not isolated from the world: they are saturated with people," she says.

And, as a result, they find themselves in "a state in which we are neither alone nor accompanied, neither suffering nor happy, neither angry nor resigned. We float. We keep busy", she continues.

Chloé Morin, 38 years old, assumes having written a hybrid book mixing fictional scenes, reflections and proposals. And claims her independence: “I like to build bridges between disciplines, such as psychology, sociology or economics, and to make them talk to each other to deal with a problem in all its facets,” she explains to AFP.

For the essayist, all Western societies are subject to a "regime" formed by "systematic and coherent rules" which aim to "satisfy the needs" of each person without taking into account the collective.

“Encapsulated”

However, “when we destroy the link, we end up endangering democracy and this is the stage reached today. We see it everywhere, observing for example that tolerance for contradiction is weakening,” she believes.

She regrets that this "transversal issue" is not taken into greater account by political leaders, "while it should be at the center of the presidential debates" in spring 2017.

Chloé Morin is not the only one to worry about this.

In “Homo occidentalis” (Threshold), political analyst Jérôme Fourquet and clinical psychologist Ruben Rabinovitch examine the current anthropological shift. And they ask themselves: “how can we go about reviving life in society in such a way that everyone rediscovers the taste for living?”

For his part, researcher Paul Klotz calls, in “The Capitalism of Solitude”, a study by the Jean Jaurès Foundation, to “fight” against “market forces” which “direct profitability towards the production of isolation”.

“Solitude is exploited because it is profitable,” he says, targeting Gafam (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft).

In “Our Encapsulated Lives” (PUF), Belgian philosopher Pascal Chabot dismantles the new “human condition” created by the widespread use of screens, the internet and artificial intelligence. So many “capsules” designed to “make life easier” but which eliminate direct contact with the world.

“Are we still capable of becoming attached?”, also asks the essayist Baptiste Detombe in “The Affective Revolution” (Albin Michel), who quotes Stendhal: “Man is like ivy: if he does not become attached, he dies”.

LFI MP Clémence Guetté proposes, in “For a policy of friendship” (La Découverte), to “think differently” by giving a central role to friends, for whom new rights would be established.

© 2026 AFP

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