Alienation

Fromm’s definition - Alienation is the mode of experience in which a person experiences him/herself as an alien or in other words becomes estranged from the self.

Horowitz’s definition - Alienation implies an intense separation first from objects of the world, second from people, and third from ideas about the world held by other people.

Weber’s concept of alienation emerges from perceived lack of freedom and control at work.

While Durkheim concept says that alienation is a consequence of the condition called anomie (which refers to the breakdown of norms in society leading to experienced normlessness).

Marx conceptualized alienation as the separation of the worker from ownership. He distinguishes three forms of alienation –

• Alienation from the product of work,
• Alienation in the process of production, and
• Alienation from society

The most basic understanding of alienation involves a separation or estrangement from work, the context or the self.

• Powerlessness: condition of the worker in capitalist society where the worker lacks control over his work.
• Meaninglessness: Cog in the machine. Worker is not able to see the relation of his or her work to the larger system of work.
• Normlessness: used to denote the social situation in which social norms regulating individual conduct have broken down or are no longer effective
• Isolation: ‘a feeling of separation from the group or of isolation from group standards’.
• Self Estrangement: ‘to be self alienated, means to be something less than one might ideally be’.

Marx has provided this theory as one of the reasons for revolution. The move from alienation to revolution, however, is more difficult than it seems. It requires several factors which are separate from alienation. This is most likely the reason why Marx stayed away from the ideas of alienation in his later work, preferring to use tension between the forces and relations of production, and the concept of exploitation as the cause of revolution.

Alienation provides an understanding of the problems of capitalism; it does not provide a means of escaping it.

Over a period of time, this becomes an institutionalized feeling. For me Alienation is a universal concept. On a given day, an individual can experience this phenomenon on multiple occasions. I am no exception. I feel alienated, when work allows limited autonomy, the absence of variety, challenge or creativity in work, work itself is not perceived as meaningful, work does not allow self expression, there are perceptions of low distributive justice and perceptions of low procedural justice. Alienation need not be confined to work…it can on anything. Each one of us experience alienation some way or the other. When the topic of discussion is something you are unaware of, you feel alienated.

More to come....