TenHouten - Alienation, adaptation and affect

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the ancient concept, alienation, emerged as a topic of interest in the developing fields of social philosophy and social theory. Long contested, the term alienation has assumed varied and sometimes incompatible meanings, reflecting differing assumptions, epistemologies, ontological, and ethical, normative, and existential perspectives. Despite widely different interpretations of alienation offered by such seminal scholars as Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, Simmel, and Weber, a consensus nonetheless held that the phenomenon of alienation implies distance, separation, or estrangement. This disengagement can be from ones self, from significant others, from possessions or experiences of value, from aspects of ones society, from cultural values, from work, from institutions and government, from nature, and beyond.

Despite a gradual decline in alienation studies in the social and behavioral sciences since the early 1970s, the phenomenon of alienation has hardly disappeared. Indeed, alienation has become particularly salient in our contemporary fragmented and increasingly unequal and unstable societies. As economic elites solidify their grip on power, many millions of citizens experience hardship and thwarted opportunities. Soldiers, veterans, and civilians are traumatized by wars and regime change. Increasingly overpopulated nations confront ecological devastation. Multitudes of youth face futures without realistic chances of educational and occupational advancement or meaningful participation in economic and political life. Greed and corruption run rampant. Accompanying these increasingly troubling developments is a pervasive cynicism concerning government, the breakdown of civic culture and loss of democracy, and ineffectual efforts to control the relentless financialization of the global economy. Given these disturbing trends, individuals are sure to develop feelings of impotence and alienation that include an erosion of meanings, norms, and rules, and a sense of cultural incoherence. There is thus renewed need for alienation theory and research, so that alienation as an experienced state of mind can be understood, and both its structural causes and its sociobehavioral consequences better analyzed and addressed.

This book aspires to take a step in that direction, through a two-part strategy. We first situate the concept of alienation in its historical, philosophical, and ideological contexts, and then develop it as a scientific concept. Throughout this work, we emphasize the role of affect, sentiment, and emotion in alienation. We elaborate We thus focus on five varieties of alienation, but we additionally show that two of these varieties, normlessness and cultural estrangement, consist of two subtypes. Our study thus investigates the affective bases of seven varieties of alienation.

Seeman, in 1972, proposed a sixth variety of alienation, social isolation. Social isolation, however, is arguably not a variety of alienation, and a huge literature on this subject has emerged with scant reference to alienation theory.

abhorrence

Aborigines, Australian

acceptance acquiescence

affect

affect-spectrum theory

Age of Reason

aggressiveness

alarm

alexithymia

alienation: in the 1960s

altruism

ambition

analysis

Ancient World

anger

angst

anomie

anticipation

anxiety

anxiety buffer disruption theory

apocalyptic prophesy

artistic production

asceticism

attack

authority

awe

being

belief

bliss

body, the

bondage, bondsman

boundary defense

bureaucracy

capitalism

challenge, challenge displays

class consciousness

cognition

communication

communism

community

comparison, social

conformity

confusion

consciousness

consumerism

contempt

contradiction

corpus callosum

counterculture

courtship displays

cultural estrangement

culture

curiosity

cynicism

death

dehumanization

depression

derisiveness

despair

destruction

detachment, social

disappointment

discouragement

disdain

disgust

disillusionment

distress

distrust

division of labor see

dominance

dread

economic development

economic exploitation

economic stress

ego(-ism)

emotional focus

emotional intensity

emotions

emotions classification

emotions management

emotionsvalence theory

emptiness

ends

Enlightenment, the

envy

equality

Euro-Australians

evil

evolution

existentialism

existential problems

expectation see

exploration

fatalism

fear

finitude

flesh, the see

fragmentation

freedom

frustration

future, the

gambling

genius

Gnosticism

goals

God-concept

guilt

happiness

helplessness

hierarchy

homelessness

homicide

hubris

human(-ity), human nature

humiliation

identity, social

imagination

incorporation

inequality

inferiority, social

invisibility

jealousy

joy and enjoyment

left hemisphere of brain

life-historical interviews

locus of control

logic

loneliness

lord, the see

love

magic

malaise

market-priced social relations

master, the

materialism

meaningfulness

meaninglessness xv2,

mechanization

Medieval times see

memory

Middle Ages

modernity, modernization

money

morality

mortality see

nature

New Left

normlessness

norms, sociocultural

occupational specialization , 1688

Old Left

oppression

optimism

outrage

pain

passion

past, the

pessimism

poverty see

power, social xv1,

powerlessness

present, the

pride

primary emotions

problems of life see

proletariat

protection, defense

quantitative reason