Anything Can be Endured, Except Loneliness, Loneliness is Killing Me...

The author deals with the problems of isolation and loneliness in rural, sparsely populated parts of Croatia based on the findings of research conducted in the Dalmatian Hinterland. The first part of the article is dedicated to selected theoretical insights on social isolation and loneliness, and then, by presenting the comments of people she met in the field on their own everyday life, the author deals with the diversity or subjective characteristics of the ways in which loneliness and isolation (as well as the related feelings of uselessness, feeling “redundant” and insecurity in existing relationships, to name a few) can manifestthemselves in the lives of the elderly.