What does McCullers mean when she says that Americans suffer from loneliness, and that this malady is actually a quest for identity and acceptance?

America suffers from loneliness because of the lack of acceptance, empathy, and the understanding of each other. Most of us are blinded by clouds of emotional and or physical turmoil that accumulate within us; thus, selfishness and the need to be accepted. We all want sympathy, honestly, but who really has the time to decode your fake smile when we're so focused on our own problems. Therefore, a malady will relieve our stresses with ways not anyone could. A true one night stand that will stand within endless deep and philosophical conversations; the malady is merely a delusion of a fantasy one cannot really have in this dimension, in this world alone.