alienation
ay-lee-uh-NAY-shun
/ˌeɪliəˈneɪʃən/
The state or experience of being isolated from a group or an activity to which one should belong or in which one should be involved.
In Marxism, it specifically refers to the worker's separation from the product of their labor and their own human potential.
The story behind the word. From the Latin 'alienus', meaning 'belonging to another' or 'foreign'. It was originally a legal term for the transfer of property before being adopted by philosophers to describe a 'transfer' of the self.
Word relationships
- estrangement: The fact of no longer being on friendly terms or part of a social group, often used for personal relationships.
- isolation: The state of being alone, which may or may not include the psychological feeling of alienation.
- integration: The action or process of integrating.
- belonging: An affinity for a place or situation.
Commonly confused with
- anomie: Anomie is a lack of social norms; alienation is a feeling of separation from those norms or from others.
Word family
- alienate (verb): to cause someone to feel isolated
- alien (adjective): belonging to a foreign country or nation
Collocations
- sense of alienation
- social alienation
- alienation from society
- worker alienation
Example sentences
- "The alienation of the worker in his product means not only that his labor becomes an object... but that it exists outside him." Marxist theory of labor. (Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844)
- "The rapid pace of technological change can lead to a sense of alienation among the elderly." Social psychology.
Memory hook
Think of an 'Alien'—someone who doesn't belong. Alienation is the feeling of being an alien in your own society. An alien in your own world.
When not to use
Do not use it for simple 'loneliness'; it implies a deeper, structural disconnection from society or self.
Fun facts
- The term was used in psychology in the 19th century to describe mental illness (hence 'alienist' for a psychiatrist).
- Marx identified four types of alienation: from the product, the process, others, and the self.
Related words
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