Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2020

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Author’s Note-Preface

Part 1, Chapters 1-2

Part 1, Chapters 3-5

Part 2, Chapters 6-7

Part 2, Chapter 8-Conclusion

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Author’s Note-PrefaceChapter Summaries & Analyses

Author’s Note Summary

Content Warning: This section of the Study Guide discusses depression, anxiety, suicide, self-harm, addiction, violence, and other public health concerns.

Together begins with a brief Author’s Note Vivek Murthy wrote in March 2020. Murthy notes that he was initially motivated to write the book based on his observation of “social disconnection” over several decades and that he hoped to highlight the health impacts of those trends while fostering stronger social bonds. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread around the globe, leading to the closure and shutdowns of schools, businesses, and other institutions, “getting close enough to breathe on another person became synonymous with danger” (7).

Noting that further isolation seems inevitable in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic, Murthy prescribes four lessons he learned while writing the book: spending daily time with loved ones, focusing that time on one’s company (rather than screens or other distractions), connecting with the self through solitude, and helping others.

Preface Summary

Murthy describes the beginning of his first term as the United States surgeon general in 2014. While he expected to focus on and address concerns such as smoking and tobacco use, obesity, mental health, and vaccination in his role, he applied his experiences as a physician who focused on building relationships and decided to listen to US constituents before choosing areas of focus.

After embarking on a “listening tour” across the United States, some of Murthy’s suspicions were confirmed: People were concerned about issues such as e-cigarette use among teens, opioids, and heart disease. However, the issue of loneliness arose over and over; while not a “frontline complaint,” loneliness “ran like a dark thread” through public health concerns like addiction (12), violence, and the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.

Murthy also found examples of the “healing power” of connecting with others. Indigenous American teens in Oklahoma created a program to promote cultural pride and prevent substance use, for instance. In Alabama, he met a community engaging in group exercise to counteract rising obesity rates and chronic health concerns. In Flint, he met organizers who knocked on doors to teach their neighbors how to filter their water.

Informed by these and his own experiences with loneliness, Murthy determined that loneliness is a public health concern and set out to figure out how to address it, leading to the writing of Together. The author notes that the book is informed by both research and personal stories, which serve to remind readers that people are “better together.”

Author’s Note-Preface Analysis

The front matter section establishes Vivek Murthy’s authority and credentials with regard to public health and situates the book within its historical context. Serving as US surgeon general under both Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Murthy was tasked with both identifying and addressing the nation’s most pressing public health concerns. In explaining his methodologies for doing so, Murthy establishes his commitment to statistics and evidence-driven research—which he employs throughout the book—but his listening sessions with people across the United States also model the type of social connection and collaboration that he promotes.

The Author’s Note focuses on the social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was a new public health concern at the time the book was going to press. It not only establishes Murthy’s concern about the deepening of the loneliness epidemic due to the pandemic, but it anticipates some of the actual outcomes of the pandemic, such as weakening social ties due to social distancing and a shift toward online means of connection.

The Author’s Note and Preface also establish Murthy’s authorial voice and set the tone for the book. Murthy employs accessible yet occasionally vivid diction, such as his simile describing loneliness as similar to “a dark thread” running through multiple public health concerns. Furthermore, personal anecdotes—such as describing his “first-day jitters” that actually happened daily in elementary school—appear frequently throughout the book. These anecdotes not only remind readers of the author’s humanity, but they model vulnerability, a skill that he emphasizes in later chapters as essential, particularly for boys and men who have been socialized to avoid it.