Connectedness occupies a central, if multiply determined, position across the depth-psychology corpus. Its valences range from the neurobiological to the cosmological, and the tensions among those registers are themselves philosophically productive. At the biological pole, Porges articulates social connectedness as a ‘biological imperative,’ a need embedded in the architecture of the autonomic nervous system whose absence shifts the organism from ventral-vagal safety toward defensive mobilization. Dana translates this into clinical practice through the language of reciprocity, rupture, and repair. At the intrapsychic pole, Schwartz locates connectedness as a cardinal quality of the Self — not a striven-for achievement but a naturally arising state once burdened parts are unburdened — and extends this to a metaphysics of field-resonance that echoes Einstein and quantum theory. Kurtz grounds connectedness in the spiritual anthropology of imperfection: the etymological convergence of ‘good,’ ‘gather,’ and ‘together’ supports his argument that it is humanity’s deepest desire and that its recovery requires the acceptance of limitation. Yaden and Lench approach it phenomenologically, as the relational component of self-transcendent experience, measurable on a unitary continuum and empirically associated with awe. Siegel frames it structurally as integration — the linkage of differentiated elements — and warns that its disruption yields dissociation. Samuels locates its absence as the cost of exaggerated heroic-ego mythology. Together these positions reveal connectedness as the organizing telos of therapeutic, spiritual, and neuroscientific work alike.
The Self naturally has the sense of connectedness Einstein wrote about. Rather than needing to strive to feel connected, as we access our Self we just feel connected.
Schwartz argues that connectedness is an intrinsic quality of the Self, spontaneously present when parts cease to dominate, and that it resonates with something cosmically larger than the individual.
, Internal Family Systems Therapy, 1995thesis
this experience of connectedness and harmony is more than simply ‘feeling good’: It involves being good … the sense of ‘being joined or united in a fitting way.’ … This sense is, perhaps, the most important human experience.
Kurtz argues, via etymology, that connectedness to others and a greater whole is not merely a pleasant affect but the foundational spiritual and moral experience of human life.
, The Spirituality of Imperfection Storytelling and the, 1994thesis
SOCIAL CONNECTEDNESS: A BIOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE A biological imperative identifies a need that must be fulfilled for a living organism to perpet
Porges elevates social connectedness from a psychological preference to a biological necessity, grounding it in the polyvagal architecture of the autonomic nervous system.
, Polyvagal Theory: A Science of Safety, 2022thesis
Our parts, especially when they are burdened, forget our field or wave state of connectedness and can make us forget too. As we separate from them and access purer Self, we remember our wave-state connectedness.
Schwartz extends the IFS model into a field-physics metaphor, proposing that connectedness is the wave-state of Self occluded by burdened parts and recovered through their unburdening.
, No Bad Parts, 2021thesis
a ‘relational’ component, which refers to the sense of connectedness, even to the point of oneness, with something beyond the self … both of these components can occur to varying degrees
Yaden formally defines connectedness as one of two constitutive components of self-transcendent experience, placing it on a measurable unitary continuum from mild kinship to full oneness.
, The Varieties of Self-Transcendent Experience, 2017thesis
the sense of self has been empirically shown to diminish and the sense of connectedness to increase during states of awe … awe being classed as a self-transcendent experience (STE), temporary mental states characterized by an increased sense of connectedness and/or diminished sense of self
Empirical research on awe confirms that connectedness and self-diminishment co-vary, providing quantitative support for the relational component of self-transcendence.
, The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help Us, 2018supporting
Missing is an acknowledgment of the nervous system’s need for cues of safety and connectedness. These models could be reconceptualized to incorporate an understanding of safety and optimal homeostatic function
Porges critiques binary threat-removal models of wellbeing for omitting the nervous system’s positive requirement for safety cues and connectedness as distinct homeostatic inputs.
, Polyvagal Theory: A Science of Safety, 2022supporting
to be an alcoholic within Alcoholics Anonymous is not only to accept oneself as not God; it implies also affirmation of one’s connectedness with other alcoholics.
Kurtz shows that in AA’s spiritual logic, the acceptance of human limitation is the precondition for experiencing connectedness with others, making limitation the gateway to belonging.
, Not God A History of Alcoholics Anonymous, 2010supporting
True emotional sobriety brings a connectedness to ourselves and to others. This connectedness in relationships is characterized by expressed feelings, trust, mutual respect, and an acknowledgment that a Higher Power is real.
The ACA tradition frames connectedness as the hallmark of genuine emotional sobriety, distinguishing it from compulsive attachment by its qualities of expressed feeling, trust, and mutual respect.
, ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES, 2012supporting
it can only continue to separate, dissolve, analyse, and kill, but never again find connectedness, not because such connectedness is altogether impossible, but because it has no place within a myth aiming for separation and violence.
Samuels, citing Giegerich, argues that the hero-archetype’s dominance forecloses connectedness by structuring psychic life as perpetual opposition, making its recovery contingent on transcending heroic mythology.
, Jung and the Post-Jungians, 1985supporting
These connections within ourselves and with others are the essence of living vital lives and remaining open to all layers of our own emerging experiences.
Siegel positions inner and interpersonal connectedness as the experiential core of vitality, linking it directly to his integrative neuroscience framework.
, The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are, 2020supporting
We can have an inner sense of coherence, an interpersonal sense of joining, and an intra nature sense of belonging to the whole of life. Inner, inter, and intra are three facets of the integrative coherence of our sense of self and identity
Siegel maps connectedness onto three nested scales — intrapsychic, interpersonal, and ecological — unifying them under the organizing principle of integration.
, The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are, 2020supporting
Along the way there are repeated losses — of security, of connectedness, of unconsciousness, of innocence, and progressively, the loss of comrades, bodily
Hollis situates connectedness within a developmental phenomenology of loss, identifying its recurrent dissolution as one of life’s primary wounds requiring conscious mourning.
, Swamplands of the Soul: New Life in Dismal Places, 1996supporting
The next wider level of ground expresses an even deeper interconnectedness between organism and world, extending beyond the confines of purely personal experience.
Welwood locates transpersonal connectedness as an ontological feature of a deeper ground that precedes and exceeds personal psychological experience.
, Toward a Psychology of Awakening Buddhism, Psychotherapy,, 2000supporting
Clients who crave social connectedness but are hampered by poor interpersonal skills are particularly prone to psychological distress.
Yalom identifies the gap between the desire for connectedness and the interpersonal capacity to achieve it as a specific vector of psychological suffering addressed through group therapy.
, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, Fifth Edition, 2008supporting
She is bound to disappoint him much of the time in his need for connectedness and perfect, or infinite, love and nurturing.
Moore observes that the mortal mother inevitably fails to satisfy the masculine psyche’s archetypal hunger for absolute connectedness, deflecting that need toward the Great Mother imago.
, King Warrior Magician Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine, 1990aside
I believe that your individual Self is part of a larger field of SELF that can harmonize human interactions. Whenever you act from Self or help release it in others, you are contributing to that field’s growth
Schwartz extends the individual experience of Self-connectedness to a collective field ontology, arguing that each act of unburdening amplifies a shared relational field.
, No Bad Parts, 2021aside