Social alienation is "a condition in social
relationships reflected by a low degree of
integration or common values and a high degree
of distance or isolation between individuals,
or between an individual and a group of people
in a community or work environment". It is
a sociological concept developed by several
classical and contemporary theorists. The
concept has many discipline-specific uses,
and can refer both to a personal psychological
state (subjectively) and to a type of social
relationship (objectively).
== History ==
The term alienation has been used over the
ages with varied and sometimes contradictory
meanings. In ancient history it could mean
a metaphysical sense of achieving a higher
state of contemplation, ecstasy or union—becoming
alienated from a limited existence in the
world, in a positive sense. Examples of this
usage have been traced to neoplatonic philosophers
such as Plotinus (in the Greek alloiosis).
There have also long been religious concepts
of being separated or cut off from God and
the faithful, alienated in a negative sense.
The New Testament mentions the term apallotrioomai
in Greek—"being alienated from". Ideas of
estrangement from a Golden Age, or due to
a fall of man, or approximate equivalents
in differing cultures or religions, have also
been described as concepts of alienation.
A double positive and negative sense of alienation
is broadly shown in the spiritual beliefs
referred to as Gnosticism.
Alienation has also had a particular legal-political
meaning since at least Ancient Roman times,
where to alienate property (alienato) is to
transfer ownership of it to someone else.
The term alienation itself comes from the
Latin alienus which meant 'of another place
or person', which in turn came from alius,
meaning "other" or "another". An alienus in
ancient Roman times could refer to someone
else's slave. Another usage of the term in
Ancient Greco-Roman times was by physicians
referring to disturbed, difficult or abnormal
states of mind, generally attributed to imbalanced
physiology. In Latin alienatio mentis (mental
alienation), this usage has been dated to
Asclepiades. Once translations of such works
had resurfaced in the West in the 17th century,
physicians again began using the term, which
is typically attributed to Felix Platter.
In medieval times, a relationship between
alienation and social order has been described,
mediated in part by mysticism and monasticism.
The Crusades and witch-hunts have been described
as forms of mass alienation.
=== 17th century ===
In the 17th century, Hugo Grotius put forward
the concept that everyone has 'sovereign authority'
over themselves but that they could alienate
that natural right to the common good, an
early social contract theory. In the 18th
century, Hutcheson introduced a distinction
between alienable and unalienable rights in
the legal sense of the term. Rousseau published
influential works on the same theme, and is
also seen as having popularized a more psychological-social
concept relating to alienation from a state
of nature due to the expansion of civil society
or the nation state.
In the same century a law of alienation of
affection was introduced for men to seek compensation
from other men accused of taking away 'their'
woman.
In the history of literature, the German Romantics
appear to be the first group of writers and
poets in whose work the concept of alienation
is regularly found. Around the start of the
19th century, Hegel popularized a Christian
(Lutheran) and Idealist philosophy of alienation.
He used German terms in partially different
senses, referring to a psychological state
and an objective process, and in general posited
that the self was an historical and social
creation, which becomes alienated from itself
via a perceived objective world, but can become
de-alienated again when that world is seen
as just another aspect of the self-consciousness,
which may be achieved by self-sacrifice to
the common good.
Around the same time, Pinel was popularizing
a new understanding of mental alienation,
particularly through his 'medical-philosophical
treatise'. He argued that people could be
disturbed (alienated) by emotional states
and social conditions, without necessarily
having lost (become alienated from) their
reason, as had generally been assumed. Hegel
praised Pinel for his 'moral treatment' approach,
and developed related theories. Nevertheless,
as Foucault would later write, "... in an
obscure, shared origin, the 'alienation' of
physicians and the 'alienation' of philosophers
started to take shape—two configurations
in which man in any case corrupts his truth,
but between which, after Hegel, the nineteenth
century stopped seeing any trace of resemblance."Two
camps formed following Hegel, the 'young'
or 'left' Hegelians who developed his philosophy
to support innovations in politics or religion,
and the 'old' or 'right' Hegelians who took
his philosophy in a politically and religiously
conservative direction. The former camp has
had a more lasting influence and, among them,
Feuerbach differed from Hegel in arguing that
worship of God is itself a form of alienation,
because it projects human qualities on to
an external idea, rather than realising them
as part of the self.
=== Marx ===
Marx was initially in the Young Hegelian camp
and, like Feuerbach, rejected the spiritual
basis, and adapted Hegel's dialectic model
to a theory of (historical) materialism. Marx's
theory of alienation is articulated most clearly
in the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts
of 1844 and The German Ideology (1846). The
'young' Marx wrote more often and directly
of alienation than the 'mature' Marx, which
some regard as an ideological break while
others maintain that the concept remained
central. There is generally held to be a transition
from a philosophical-anthropological (Marxist
humanism) concept (e.g. internal alienation
from the self) to a structural-historical
interpretation (e.g. external alienation by
appropriation of labor), accompanied by a
change in terminology from alienation to exploitation
to commodity fetishism and reification. Marx's
concepts of alienation have been classed into
four types by Kostas Axelos: economic and
social alienation, political alienation, human
alienation, and ideological alienation.In
the concept's most prominent use, it refers
to the economic and social alienation aspect
in which workers are disconnected from what
they produce and why they produce. Marx believed
that alienation is a systematic result of
capitalism. Essentially, there is an "exploitation
of men by men" where the division of labor
creates an economic hierarchy (Axelos, 1976:
58). His theory of alienation was based upon
his observation that in emerging industrial
production under capitalism, workers inevitably
lose control of their lives and selves by
not having any control of their work. Workers
never become autonomous, self-realized human
beings in any significant sense, except in
the way the bourgeoisie wants the worker to
be realized. His theory relies on Feuerbach's
The Essence of Christianity (1841), which
argues that the idea of God has alienated
the characteristics of the human being. Stirner
would take the analysis further in The Ego
and Its Own (1844), declaring that even 'humanity'
is an alienating ideal for the individual,
to which Marx and Engels responded in The
German Ideology (1845). Alienation in capitalist
societies occurs because in work each contributes
to the common wealth but they can only express
this fundamentally social aspect of individuality
through a production system that is not publicly
social but privately owned, for which each
individual functions as an instrument, not
as a social being. Kostas Axelos summarizes
that for Marx, in capitalism "work renders
man an alien to himself and to his own products."
"The malaise of this alienation from the self
means that the worker does not affirm himself
but denies himself, does not feel content
but unhappy....The worker only feels himself
outside his work, and in his work he feels
outside himself....Its alien character emerges
clearly in the fact as soon as no physical
or other compulsion exists, it is avoided
like the plague.". Marx also wrote, in a curtailed
manner, that capitalist owners also experience
alienation, through benefiting from the economic
machine by endlessly competing, exploiting
others and maintaining mass alienation in
society.The idea of Political Alienation refers
to the idea that "politics is the form that
organizes the productive forces of the economy"
in a way that is alienating because it "distorts
the logic of economic development".In Human
Alienation, individuals become estranged to
themselves in the quest to stay alive, where
"they lose their true existence in the struggle
for subsistence" (Axelos, 1976: 111). Marx
focuses on two aspects of human nature which
he calls "historical conditions." The first
aspect refers to the necessity of food, clothes,
shelter, and more. Secondly, Marx believes
that after satisfying these basic needs people
have the tendency to develop more "needs"
or desires that they will work towards satisfying,
hence, humans become stuck in a cycle of never
ending wants which makes them strangers to
each other.When referring to ideological alienation,
Axelos proposes that Marx believes that all
religions divert people away from "their true
happiness" and instead turn them towards "illusory
happiness".There is a commonly noted problem
of translation in grappling with ideas of
alienation derived from German-language philosophical
texts: the word alienation, and similar words
such as estrangement, are often used interchangeably
to translate two distinct German words, Entfremdung
and Entäußerung. The former means specifically
interpersonal estrangement, while the latter
can have a broader and more active meaning
that might refer also to externalization,
relinquishment, or sale (alienation) of property.
In general, and contrary to his predecessors,
Marx may have used the terms interchangeably,
though he also wrote "Entfremdung...constitutes
the real interest of this Entäußerung."
=== Late 1800s to 1900s ===
Many sociologists of the late 19th and early
20th centuries were concerned about alienating
effects of modernization. German sociologists
Georg Simmel and Ferdinand Tönnies wrote
critical works on individualization and urbanization.
Simmel's The Philosophy of Money describes
how relationships become more and more mediated
by money. Tönnies' Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
(Community and Society) is about the loss
of primary relationships such as familial
bonds in favour of goal-oriented, secondary
relationships. This idea of alienation can
be observed in some other contexts, although
the term may not be as frequently used. In
the context of an individual's relationships
within society, alienation can mean the unresponsiveness
of society as a whole to the individuality
of each member of the society. When collective
decisions are made, it is usually impossible
for the unique needs of each person to be
taken into account.
The American sociologist C. Wright Mills conducted
a major study of alienation in modern society
with White Collar in 1951, describing how
modern consumption-capitalism has shaped a
society where you have to sell your personality
in addition to your work. Melvin Seeman was
part of a surge in alienation research during
the mid-20th century when he published his
paper, "On the Meaning of Alienation", in
1959 (Senekal, 2010b: 7–8). Seeman used
the insights of Marx, Emile Durkheim and others
to construct what is often considered a model
to recognize the five prominent features of
alienation: powerlessness, meaninglessness,
normlessness, isolation and self-estrangement
(Seeman, 1959). Seeman later added a sixth
element (cultural estrangement), although
this element does not feature prominently
in later discussions of his work.
In a broader philosophical context, especially
in existentialism and phenomenology, alienation
describes the inadequacy of the human being
(or the mind) in relation to the world. The
human mind (as the subject who perceives)
sees the world as an object of perception,
and is distanced from the world, rather than
living within it. This line of thought is
generally traced to the works of Søren Kierkegaard
in the 19th century, who, from a Christian
viewpoint, saw alienation as separation from
God, and also examined the emotions and feelings
of individuals when faced with life choices.
Many 20th-century philosophers (both theistic
and atheistic) and theologians were influenced
by Kierkegaard's notions of angst, despair
and the importance of the individual. Martin
Heidegger's concepts of anxiety (angst) and
mortality drew from Kierkegaard; he is indebted
to the way Kierkegaard lays out the importance
of our subjective relation to truth, our existence
in the face of death, the temporality of existence
and the importance of passionately affirming
one's being-in-the-world. Jean-Paul Sartre
described the "thing-in-itself" which is infinite
and overflowing, and claimed that any attempt
to describe or understand the thing-in-itself
is "reflective consciousness". Since there
is no way for the reflective consciousness
to subsume the pre-reflective, Sartre argued
that all reflection is fated to a form of
anxiety (i.e. the human condition). As well,
Sartre argued that when a person tries to
gain knowledge of the "Other" (meaning beings
or objects that are not the self), their self-consciousness
has a "masochistic desire" to be limited.
This is expressed metaphorically in the line
from the play No Exit, "Hell is other people".
In the theory of psychoanalysis developed
around the start of the 20th century, Sigmund
Freud did not explicitly address the concept
of alienation, but other analysts subsequently
have. It is a theory of divisions and conflicts
between the conscious and unconscious mind,
between different parts of a hypothetical
psychic apparatus, and between the self and
civilization. It postulates defense mechanisms,
including splitting, in both normal and disturbed
functioning. The concept of repression has
been described as having functionally equivalent
effects as the idea of false consciousness
associated with Marxist theory.A form of Western
Marxism developed during the century, which
included influential analyses of false consciousness
by György Lukács. Critics of bureaucracy
and the Protestant Ethic also drew on the
works of Max Weber.
Figures associated with critical theory, in
particular with the Frankfurt School, such
as Theodor Adorno and Erich Fromm, also developed
theories of alienation, drawing on neo-Marxist
ideas as well as other influences including
neo-Freudian and sociological theories. One
approach applies Marxist theories of commodification
to the cultural, educational and party-political
spheres. Links are drawn between socioeconomic
structures, psychological states of alienation,
and personal human relationships. In the 1960s
the revolutionary group Situationist International
came to some prominence, staging 'situations'
intended to highlight an alternative way of
life to advanced capitalism, the latter conceptualized
as a diffuse 'spectacle', a fake reality masking
a degradation of human life. The Theory of
Communicative Action associated with Jürgen
Habermas emphasizes the essential role of
language in public life, suggesting that alienation
stems from the distortion of reasoned moral
debate by the strategic dominance of market
forces and state power.
This critical program can be contrasted with
traditions that attempt to extract problems
of alienation from the broader socioeconomic
context, or which at least accept the broader
context on its own terms, and which often
attribute problems to individual abnormality
or failures to adjust.After the boom in alienation
research that characterized the 1950s and
1960s, interest in alienation research subsided
(Geyer, 1996: xii), although in sociology
it was maintained by the Research Committee
on Alienation of the International Sociological
Association (ISA). In the 1990s, there was
again an upsurge of interest in alienation
prompted by the fall of the Soviet Union,
globalization, the information explosion,
increasing awareness of ethnic conflicts,
and post-modernism (see Geyer, 1996). Geyer
believes the growing complexity of the contemporary
world and post-modernism prompted a reinterpretation
of alienation that suits the contemporary
living environment. In late 20th and early
21st century sociology, it has been particularly
the works of Felix Geyer, Lauren Langman and
Devorah Kalekin-Fishman that address the issue
of alienation in the contemporary western
world.
== Powerlessness ==
Alienation in the sense of a lack of power
has been technically defined by Seeman as
"the expectancy or probability held by the
individual that his own behaviour cannot determine
the occurrence of the outcomes, or reinforcements,
he seeks." Seeman argues that this is "the
notion of alienation as it originated in the
Marxian view of the worker's condition in
capitalist society: the worker is alienated
to the extent that the prerogative and means
of decision are expropriated by the ruling
entrepreneurs". More succinctly, Kalekin-Fishman
(1996: 97) says, "A person suffers from alienation
in the form of 'powerlessness' when she is
conscious of the gap between what she would
like to do and what she feels capable of doing".
In discussing powerlessness, Seeman also incorporated
the insights of the psychologist Julian Rotter.
Rotter distinguishes between internal control
and external locus of control, which means
"differences (among persons or situations)
in the degree to which success or failure
is attributable to external factors (e.g.
luck, chance, or powerful others), as against
success or failure that is seen as the outcome
of one's personal skills or characteristics".
Powerlessness, therefore, is the perception
that the individual does not have the means
to achieve his goals.
More recently, Geyer remarks that "a new type
of powerlessness has emerged, where the core
problem is no longer being unfree but rather
being unable to select from among an overchoice
of alternatives for action, whose consequences
one often cannot even fathom". Geyer adapts
cybernetics to alienation theory, and writes
(1996: xxiv) that powerlessness is the result
of delayed feedback: "The more complex one's
environment, the later one is confronted with
the latent, and often unintended, consequences
of one's actions. Consequently, in view of
this causality-obscuring time lag, both the
'rewards' and 'punishments' for one's actions
increasingly tend to be viewed as random,
often with apathy and alienation as a result".
== Meaninglessness ==
A sense of meaning has been defined by Seeman
as "the individual's sense of understanding
events in which he is engaged". Seeman (1959:
786) writes that meaninglessness "is characterized
by a low expectancy that satisfactory predictions
about the future outcomes of behaviour can
be made." Whereas powerlessness refers to
the sensed ability to control outcomes, this
refers to the sensed ability to predict outcomes.
In this respect, meaninglessness is closely
tied to powerlessness; Seeman (Ibid.) argues,
"the view that one lives in an intelligible
world might be a prerequisite to expectancies
for control; and the unintelligibility of
complex affairs is presumably conducive to
the development of high expectancies for external
control (that is, high powerlessness)".
Geyer (1996: xxiii) believes meaninglessness
should be reinterpreted for postmodern times:
"With the accelerating throughput of information
[...] meaningless is not a matter anymore
of whether one can assign meaning to incoming
information, but of whether one can develop
adequate new scanning mechanisms to gather
the goal-relevant information one needs, as
well as more efficient selection procedures
to prevent being overburdened by the information
one does not need, but is bombarded with on
a regular basis." "Information overload" or
the so-called "data tsunami" are well-known
information problems confronting contemporary
man, and Geyer thus argues that meaninglessness
is turned on its head.
== Normlessness ==
Normlessness (or what Durkheim referred to
as anomie) "denotes the situation in which
the social norms regulating individual conduct
have broken down or are no longer effective
as rules for behaviour". This aspect refers
to the inability to identify with the dominant
values of society or rather, with what are
perceived to be the dominant values of society.
Seeman (1959: 788) adds that this aspect can
manifest in a particularly negative manner,
"The anomic situation [...] may be defined
as one in which there is a high expectancy
that socially unapproved behaviours are required
to achieve given goals". This negative manifestation
is dealt with in detail by Catherine Ross
and John Mirowski in a series of publications
on mistrust, powerlessness, normlessness and
crime.
Neal & Collas (2000: 122) write, "Normlessness
derives partly from conditions of complexity
and conflict in which individuals become unclear
about the composition and enforcement of social
norms. Sudden and abrupt changes occur in
life conditions, and the norms that usually
operate may no longer seem adequate as guidelines
for conduct". This is a particular issue after
the fall of the Soviet Union, mass migrations
from developing to developed countries, and
the general sense of disillusionment that
characterized the 1990s (Senekal, 2011). Traditional
values that had already been questioned (especially
during the 1960s) were met with further scepticism
in the 1990s, resulting in a situation where
individuals rely more often on their own judgement
than on institutions of authority: "The individual
not only has become more independent of the
churches, but from other social institutions
as well. The individual can make more personal
choices in far more life situations than before"
(Halman, 1998: 100). These choices are not
necessarily "negative": Halman's study found
that Europeans remain relatively conservative
morally, even though the authority of the
Church and other institutions has eroded.
== Relationships ==
One concept used in regard to specific relationships
is that of parental alienation, where a child
is distanced from and expresses a general
dislike for one of their parents (who may
have divorced or separated). The term is not
applied where there is child abuse. The parental
alienation might be due to specific influences
from either parent or could result from the
social dynamics of the family as a whole.
It can also be understood in terms of attachment,
the social and emotional process of bonding
between child and caregiver. Adoptees can
feel alienated from both adoptive parents
and birth parents.Familial estrangement between
parents and adult children "is attributed
to a number of biological, psychological,
social, and structural factors affecting the
family, including attachment disorders, incompatible
values and beliefs, unfulfilled expectations,
critical life events and transitions, parental
alienation, and ineffective communication
patterns." The degree of alienation has been
positively correlated with decreased emotional
functioning in the parent who feels a loss
of identity and stigma.Attachment relationships
in adults can also involve feelings of alienation.
Indeed, emotional alienation is said to be
a common way of life for many, whether it
is experienced as overwhelming, or is not
admitted to in the midst of a socioeconomic
race, or contributes to seemingly unrelated
problems.
== Social isolation ==
Social isolation refers to "The feeling of
being segregated from one's community". Neal
and Collas (2000: 114) emphasize the centrality
of social isolation in the modern world: "While
social isolation is typically experienced
as a form of personal stress, its sources
are deeply embedded in the social organization
of the modern world. With increased isolation
and atomization, much of our daily interactions
are with those who are strangers to us and
with whom we lack any ongoing social relationships."
Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the
end of the Cold War, migrants from Eastern
Europe and the developing countries have flocked
to developed countries in search of a better
living standard. This has led to entire communities
becoming uprooted: no longer fully part of
their homelands, but neither integrated into
their adopted communities. Diaspora literature
depicts the plights of these migrants, such
as Hafid Bouazza in Paravion. Senekal (2010b:
41) argues, "Low-income communities or religious
minorities may feel separated from mainstream
society, leading to backlashes such as the
civil unrest that occurred in French cities
in October 2005. The fact that the riots subsequently
spread to Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands,
Spain, Greece, and Switzerland, illustrates
that not only did these communities feel segregated
from mainstream society, but also that they
found a community in their isolation; they
regarded themselves as kindred spirits".
== Among returning war veterans ==
Because of intense group solidarity and unique
daily hardships brought by combat, many veterans
feel alienated from citizens, family, and
friends when they return. They often feel
they have little in common with civilian peers;
issues that concern friends and family seem
trivial after combat. There is a clarity of
focus and purpose that comes with war that
few in civilian life will ever know. Afghanistan
veteran Brendon O'Byrne says, "We were really
close. Physically and emotionally close. It's
kind of terrifying being in such an emotionally
safe environment and then suddenly be expelled
into an alienated, fractured society." The
challenges of re-entering a civilian life
where few people have experienced combat may
contribute to the sense of loneliness. As
filmmaker and war correspondent Sebastian
Junger says, "They didn't want to go back
because it was traumatic, but because it was
a place where they understood what they were
supposed to do. They understood who they were.
They had a sense of purpose. They were necessary.
All these things that young people strive
for are answered in combat." Veterans often
see their wartime experience as the most selfless
and meaningful period of their lives. Some
veterans have expressed the sentiment that
"even in the quiet moments, war is brighter,
louder, brasher, more fun, more tragic, more
wasteful. More. More of everything."The experience
of the Vietnam veteran was distinctly different
from that of veterans of other American wars.
Once he completed his tour of duty, he usually
severed all bonds with his unit and comrades.
It was extremely rare for a veteran to write
to his buddies who were still in combat, and
(in strong contrast to the endless reunions
of World War II veterans) for more than a
decade it was even rarer for more than two
or more of them to get together after the
war. Korean War veterans had no memorial and
precious few parades, but they fought an invading
army and experienced a sense of resolution
and accomplishment. The Vietnam War was a
long, contentious conflict (1955–75) which
in the mid to late 1960s started to lose political
and domestic support, most notably in academia
and film that often portrayed soldiers of
this conflict as ignoble adding to their social
alienation. That the Vietnam War was ultimately
lost on April 30, 1975, furthered the sense
of meaninglessness and malaise. It has been
demonstrated that as the perception of community
alienation increases, an individual's sense
of confidence or mastery in decision making
will decrease, and so too their motivation
to socially engage.
== Political alienation ==
One manifestation of the above dimensions
of alienation can be a feeling of estrangement
from, and a lack of engagement in, the political
system. Such political alienation could result
from not identifying with any particular political
party or message, and could result in revolution,
reforming behavior, or abstention from the
political process, possibly due to voter apathy.A
similar concept is policy alienation, where
workers experience a state of psychological
disconnection from a policy programme being
implemented.
== Self-estrangement ==
Self-estrangement is an elusive concept in
sociology, as recognized by Seeman (1959),
although he included it as an aspect in his
model of alienation. Some, with Marx, consider
self-estrangement to be the end result and
thus the heart of social alienation. Self-estrangement
can be defined as "the psychological state
of denying one's own interests – of seeking
out extrinsically satisfying, rather than
intrinsically satisfying, activities...".
It could be characterized as a feeling of
having become a stranger to oneself, or to
some parts of oneself, or alternatively as
a problem of self-knowledge, or authenticity.
Seeman (1959) recognized the problems inherent
in defining the "self", while post-modernism
in particular has questioned the very possibility
of pin-pointing what precisely "self" constitutes.
Gergen (1996: 125) argues that: "the traditional
view of self versus society is deeply problematic
and should be replaced by a conception of
the self as always already immersed in relatedness.
On this account, the individual's lament of
'not belonging' is partially a by-product
of traditional discourses themselves". If
the self is relationally constituted, does
it make sense to speak of "self-estrangement"
rather than "social isolation"? Costas and
Fleming (2009: 354) suggest that although
the concept of self-estrangement "has not
weathered postmodern criticisms of essentialism
and economic determinism well", the concept
still has value if a Lacanian reading of the
self is adopted. This can be seen as part
of a wider debate on the concept of self between
humanism and antihumanism, structuralism and
post-structuralism, or nature and nurture.
== Mental disturbance ==
Until early in the 20th century, psychological
problems were referred to in psychiatry as
states of mental alienation, implying that
a person had become separated from themselves,
their reason or the world. From the 1960s
alienation was again considered in regard
to clinical states of disturbance, typically
using a broad concept of a 'schizoid' ('splitting')
process taken from psychoanalytic theory.
The splitting was said to occur within regular
child development and in everyday life, as
well as in more extreme or dysfunctional form
in conditions such as schizoid personality
and schizophrenia. Varied concepts of alienation
and self-estrangement were used to link internal
schizoid states with observable symptoms and
with external socioeconomic divisions, without
necessarily explaining or evidencing underlying
causation. R. D. Laing was particularly influential
in arguing that dysfunctional families and
socioeconomic oppression caused states of
alienation and ontological insecurity in people,
which could be considered adaptations but
which were diagnosed as disorders by mainstream
psychiatry and society.(Laing,[1967] 1959).
The specific theories associated with Laing
and others at that time are not widely accepted,
but work from other theoretical perspectives
sometimes addresses the same theme.In a related
vein, for Ian Parker, psychology normalizes
conditions of social alienation. While it
could help groups of individuals emancipate
themselves, it serves the role of reproducing
existing conditions.(Parker, 2007). This view
can be seen as part of a broader tradition
sometimes referred to as critical psychology
or liberation psychology, which emphasizes
that an individual is enmeshed within a social-political
framework, and so therefore are psychological
problems. Similarly, some psychoanalysts suggest
that while psychoanalysis emphasizes environmental
causes and reactions, it also attributes the
problems of individuals to internal conflicts
stemming from early psychosocial development,
effectively divorcing them from the wider
ongoing context. Slavoj Zizek (drawing on
Herbert Marcuse, Michel Foucault, and Jacques
Lacan's psychoanalysis) argues that in today's
capitalist society, the individual is estranged
from their self through the repressive injunction
to "enjoy!" Such an injunction does not allow
room for the recognition of alienation and,
indeed, could itself be seen as an expression
of alienation.(Zizek, 1994).
Frantz Fanon, an early writer on postcolonialism,
studied the conditions of objectification
and violent oppression (lack of autonomy)
believed to have led to mental disorders among
the colonized in the Third World (in particular
Africans) (Fanon, ([2004] 1961).
A process of 'malignant alienation' has been
observed in regard to some psychiatric patients,
especially in forensic units and for individuals
labeled 'difficult' or who aren't liked by
at least some staff, which involves a breakdown
of the therapeutic relationship between staff
and patients, and which may end in the suicide
of the patient. Individuals with long-term
mental disorders, which may have originally
stemmed from social alienation, can experience
particular social and existential alienation
within their communities due to other people's
and potentially their own negative attitudes
towards themselves and 'odd' behavior.
== Disability ==
Differences between persons with disabilities
and individuals in relative abilities, or
perceived abilities, can be a cause of alienation.
One study, "Social Alienation and Peer Identification:
A Study of the Social Construction of Deafness",
found that among deaf adults one theme emerged
consistently across all categories of life
experience: social rejection by, and alienation
from, the larger hearing community. Only when
the respondents described interactions with
deaf people did the theme of isolation give
way to comments about participation and meaningful
interaction. This appeared to be related to
specific needs, for example for real conversation,
for information, the opportunity to develop
close friendships and a sense of family. It
was suggested that the social meaning of deafness
is established by interaction between deaf
and hearing people, sometimes resulting in
marginalization of the deaf, which is sometimes
challenged. It has also led to the creation
of alternatives and the deaf community is
described as one such alternative.
Physicians and nurses often deal with people
who are temporarily or permanently alienated
from communities, which could be a result
or a cause of medical conditions and suffering,
and it has been suggested that therefore attention
should be paid to learning from experiences
of the special pain that alienation can bring.
== In art ==
Alienation is most often represented in literature
as the psychological isolation of an individual
from society or community. In a volume of
Bloom's Literary Themes, Shakespeare's Hamlet
is described as the 'supreme literary portrait'
of alienation, while noting that some may
argue for Achilles in the Iliad. In addition,
Bartleby, the Scrivener is introduced as a
perfect example because so many senses of
alienation are present. Other literary works
described as dealing with the theme of alienation
are: The Bell Jar, Black Boy, Brave New World,
The Catcher in the Rye, The Chosen, Dubliners,
Othello, Fahrenheit 451, Invisible Man, Mrs
Dalloway, Notes from Underground, One Flew
Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Strange Case of
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Stranger and The
Myth of Sisyphus, The Trial, The Castle, Waiting
for Godot, The Waste Land, and Young Goodman
Brown. Contemporary British works noted for
their perspective on alienation include The
Child in Time, London Fields, Trainspotting,
and Regeneration (Senekal, 2008 & 2010b: 102–123).
Sociologist Harry Dahms has analysed The Matrix
Trilogy of films in the context of theories
of alienation in modern society. He suggests
that the central theme of The Matrix is the
"all-pervasive yet increasingly invisible
prevalence of alienation in the world today,
and difficulties that accompany attempts to
overcome it".See also Langman's study of punk,
porn, and resistance (2008) and Senekal's
(2011) study of Afrikaans extreme metal.
British progressive rock band Pink Floyd's
concept album The Wall (1979) and British
alternative rock band Radiohead's album OK
Computer (1997), both deal with the subject
of alienation in their lyrics.
== See also
