Consultation hour with Mazda Adli

Questions on lonelyness

Psychiater und Autor Mazda Adli – Porträt von Mazda Adli

Family concerns us all. It is ever-present, yet experienced and lived in profoundly different ways. Family relationships touch countless areas of life. They influence us – consciously or unconsciously, whether we like it or not.

In the series Consultation Hour, we invite speakers who, in their professional lives, deal with family-related challenges, whose biographies are closely interwoven with the concept of family, or who are exploring alternative forms of living together. And since we all have something to say about family, everyone is invited to join the conversation – about everyday questions that are not always easy to answer, as well as topics to which one rarely gains such direct access.

How do probate genealogists reconstruct the family histories of the deceased in order to trace missing relatives? How do neighbourhood networks create webs of care and solidarity that transcend kinship, language, and class boundaries? How do counsellors in family centres help resolve conflicts within families? In what ways did lesbian networks in the GDR form their own kind of family experience? And where do people find support when separated from their families for long periods – through displacement, exile, or by conscious choice?

During the Consultation Hour at the Humboldt Forum, you can talk directly with the experts – no appointment or waiting list required! It’s all about relaxed and open exchange with the audience.

Curation: Paul Timo Kaemmerer

Since 2024, the Berlin district of Reinickendorf has had Germany’s first loneliness commissioner. The United Kingdom has a Ministry for Loneliness, and the German federal government has at least adopted a loneliness strategy. Loneliness is increasingly entering public discourse. Yet, despite the success of books like Daniel Schreiber’s Alone (orig.: Allein, 2021), it remains deeply bound up with shame.

Mazda Adli is here to explain why, and to answer your questions. As a psychiatrist and stress researcher, he investigates the social conditions and consequences of loneliness – and works to bring the subject out of the shadows.

What triggers the feeling of loneliness? What distinguishes it from solitude? How widespread is loneliness, and is it really an illness? What can be done about it? What misconceptions persist – and why does it affect so many young people?

Prof. Dr. Mazda Adli is Medical Director of the Fliedner Klinik Berlin and Head of the Mood Disorders Research Group at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, where his work focuses on depression and stress research. He founded the Interdisciplinary Forum for Neurourbanism and published Stress and the City (2017), which examines how urban life affects mental health. Since 2022, he has led the citizen science project “Your Emotional City!”, in which anyone can take part. He is a co-founder of the World Health Summit and a member of the DGPPN Task Force on Climate and Mental Health.

Ask Mazda Adli your questions. A Consultation Hour for everyone – free of charge, no appointment necessary, no waiting time.

Host: Paul Timo Kaemmerer

- Price: free admission

- Age: 6 years and older

- Language: German

- for people with visual impairments

- Place: Mechanical Arena in the Foyer

- part of: Consultation Hour: Family Matters

Next date:

• Date Sunday, 10/May/2026 14:00
• Venue Humboldt Forum: Mechanische Arena im Foyer, EG
• Address Schloßplatz, 10178 Berlin-Mitte