The Apple TV Hit Show Severance Explores the German Notion of Utter Loneliness–Mutterseelenallein

The employees of Lumon in Severance don’t just clock in and out—they’re vivisected by a corporate lobotomy that splits their souls in two. Each character exists in a bifurcated purgatory, trapped in a fluorescent-lit purgatory where one version of themselves (the “innie”) never leaves the office, and the other (the “outie”) floats through life with no memory of work. This isn’t just workplace alienation—it’s mutterseelenallein in its purest form: the kind of bone-deep loneliness where even your own psyche ghosts you. These poor saps are so severed from continuity, connection, and selfhood that they may as well have been orphaned by their own existence. It’s not just alienation from the world—it’s abandonment by the very person you’re supposed to trust most: yourself.