Alienation

Alienation refers to the isolation or estrangement of individuals and groups in relation to their sense of self, their status within their particular sociocultural communities, and their sense of control within the world of which they are a part. Throughout history, alienation has taken on various meanings within different traditions, conceived both as an internal psychological state and as a social relationship to the external world. It has emerged as a key concept for political and social theorists as a means of explaining certain aspects of human behavior, particularly related to subjective feelings and perceptions and how they relate to external conditions.