Alienation and Affect

<p>Alienation has objective, social-structural determinants, yet is experienced subjectively as a psychological state involving both emotion and cognition. Part I considers conceptualizations of alienation and affect in historical context, emphasizing Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, Simmel, and Weber. Part II develops a theory of the affective bases of Seeman’s original five varieties of alienation – normlessness, meaninglessness, self-estrangement, cultural estrangement, and powerlessness. The book argues that both normlessness and cultural estrangement manifest in two distinct forms and involve distinct emotions. Thus it develops the affective bases of seven distinct varieties of alienation. This work synthesizes classical and contemporary alienation theory and the sociology of emotions. It contributes to political sociology, and finds application in social psychiatry and related health and social-service fields that treat traumatized and highly alienated individuals.</p> <p>Introduction </p><p></p><p><strong>PART I: Alienation and Affect in Historical Context</strong></p><p></p><p>1. Alienation and Affect, From the Ancient World to Early Modernity</p><p></p><p>2. Alienation and Affect in 18th and 19th Century Social Philosophy</p><p></p><p>3. Alienation, from Hegel and Feuerbach to Marx and Engels</p><p></p><p>4. Alienation and Affect in the Late-19th and the 20th Centuries </p><p></p><p><strong>PART II: Emotions Basic to Specific Varieties of Alienation: Contemporary Theory and Research</strong> </p><p></p><p>5. Emotions as Adaptive Reactions to Problems of Life</p><p></p><p>6. Normlessness, Anomie, and the Emotions</p><p></p><p>7. Self-Estrangement and Despair</p><p></p><p>8 Meaninglessness, <em>Ressentiment</em>, and Resentment</p><p></p><p>9. Cultural Estrangement and the Emotions</p><p></p><p>10. The Emotions of Powerlessness<i> </i></p><p>11. A Summing Up, Competing Sociological Models of Alienation, and Issues in Alienation Theory and Research </p>