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What is loneliness and what influence does culture have on it? These questions were investigated by reviewing cultural changes in the industrial western world and research on loneliness in a historical context. This review brought up three approaches towards loneliness: an existential approach focusing on subjective experience, a cognitive approach making use of a cognitive construct and a social needs approach embedded in an affective construct. These approaches where explored through empirical data supporting the different views on loneliness, followed by a discussion of cultural differences in experienced loneliness, and possible degrees and kinds of loneliness. The second part of the paper addressed the strengths and weaknesses of the different findings on loneliness arguing whether or not any of the different approaches or understandings on loneliness offered a full understanding of the phenomenon. It was found that the different approaches were caught in their own methodology and epistemology and therefore unable to offer a full understanding of loneliness. Instead an integrative approach to loneliness is offered that encompasses a number of different factors that come into play when loneliness is experienced. A final section points to a need for more integrative research methods.