At one extreme, you've got the philosophers who argue that you can't know anything directly about another person's inner life, if that phrase even has meaning, but only infer what's going on in their mind by comparing it with the mind you can know directly, your own. It's an isolated, lonely existence.

Then, you've got the psychotherapists who argue that we're tied together in each others minds, be that through your family systems or, as in the groups such as one I go to, via transference or projection. It's not that you know like telepathy, but you know by shared feeling. It's a bound, relational existence.

Somewhere in between, you've the psychologists who, as in this new research, argue that sociability is essential to good mental and physical health, even dramatically affecting your mortality. The psychologists are not sure about the underlying metaphysics - are we in and out of each others heads, or merely better when bouncing along together. It's a sociable but instrumental existence.

Lonely, bound or just sociable. What's it to be?

(Image: A clip from the Charlie Chaplin silent film, 'The Bond')