alienation
noun
Alienation — the slow, painful process of becoming a stranger to one's own life
Definition
The action of alienating; the action of causing to become unfriendly; "his behavior alienated the other students"
In depth
Alienation is the act or process of estranging someone, of making a person feel unfriendly, distant, or disconnected from something they were once part of — a relationship, a community, a sense of self. The word carries deep philosophical resonance, frequently used to describe the modern individual's felt disconnection from labor, society, or even their own identity.
Origin
The word descends from Latin alienare, to make foreign or transfer to another, from alienus, belonging to another, a stranger. Its modern philosophical weight owes much to Karl Marx, who used the term to describe how industrial labor estranges workers from the products of their work, themselves, and one another — a use that has since expanded far beyond economics into nearly every domain of modern self-reflection.
Usage examples
"His behavior alienated even his closest friends, one careless slight at a time."
"The philosopher described the factory worker's alienation from the product of his own labor as a defining wound of modern life."
"She felt a creeping alienation from the city she had once called home, as though it had quietly become foreign to her."
How to use it
Alienation is heavily used in philosophical, sociological, and psychological writing, particularly in discussions descending from Marxist and existentialist traditions. In literary fiction it suits passages exploring isolation, identity, or the felt strangeness of one's own circumstances.
Related concepts
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