ALIENATION

al·ien·a·tion   (āl'yə-nā'shən, ā'lē-ə-)    n.   The act of alienating or the condition of being alienated; estrangement: Alcoholism often leads to the alienation of family and friends. Emotional isolation or dissociation. Law The act of transferring property or title to it to another.

alienation [(ay-lee-uh-nay-shuhn)]

A feeling of separation or isolation. In social science, alienation is associated with the problems caused by rapid social change, such as industrialization and urbanization (see Industrial Revolution), which has broken down traditional relationships among individuals and groups and the goods and services they produce.

Note: Alienation is most often associated with minorities, the poor, the unemployed, and other groups who have limited power to bring about changes in society.

Note: Marxism holds that workers in capitalist nations are alienated because they have no claim to ownership of the products they make.

Main Entry: alien·ation
Pronunciation: "A-lE-&-'nA-sh&n, "Al-y&-
Function: noun
1 : a withdrawing or separation of a person or aperson's affections from an object or position of former attachment <alienation … from the values of one's society and family —S. L. Halleck>
2 : a stateof abnormal function; especially : mental derangement : INSANITY

alienation al·ien·a·tion (āl'yə-nā'shən, ā'lē-ə-)
n.
A state of estrangement between the self and the objective world or between different parts of the personality.