Mother Teresa spent decades working among the sick and dying in Calcutta, and she came to believe that one form of suffering went largely unnoticed by modern medicine. "The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for," she said. "We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love." She was drawing a specific contrast between the physical poverty she saw daily in India and a quieter, emotional poverty she noticed in wealthier countries, where people had enough to eat but nobody checking whether they were alright. It is a distinction she returned to often in her later writing, having spent enough time in both settings to speak about the difference with real authority. Her observations were made long before loneliness became a major public health concern, yet they continue to resonate today as researchers increasingly examine the links between social isolation, mental wellbeing and overall physical health.
Get breaking news anytime, anywhere. Download the TOI app now!
