A Psychological Conceptualization of Alienation

The concept of alienation has undergone changes in its meaning through the history of philosophy. Since Marx it has been used as a civilization-criticizing concept which indicates humanbeing's existential modes in modem industrial society. Therefore alienation has been neglected in psychology, an empirical science focusing on an individual's behavior. However, alienation is an important psychological phenomenon, and also an ontological concept which needs to be introduced into and illuminated in epistemologically-biased psychology. The present author proposed a psychological conceptualization of alienation by defining alienation as the loss or absence of integration between one's self and his behavior. Based upon such psychological definition several related topics were discussed. They were alienation-provoking conditions, dealienation strategies, alienation-related psychological phenomena, and future research subjects in the area of psychology of alienation.

keywords

바로가기메뉴

Article Contents

Vol.7 No.1

A Psychological Conceptualization of Alienation

Abstract

Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology