alienation
Feeling cast out
Alienation is the state of being estranged or disconnected.
You might feel alienation from family after a falling out, or alienation from society when its values don't match yours.
In Marxist theory, alienation describes workers' disconnection from the products of their labor and from meaningful work itself.
Legal alienation is the transfer of property to another owner.
State of lacking companions
- solitudeState of being alone
- disconnectionState of being severed
- withdrawalAct of taking away
- detachmentSeparation or emotional uninvolvement
emptiness · desolation · seclusion · forlornness · abandonment · melancholy · despair · hopelessness
Quality of being unfamiliar
- displacementRemoval from usual location
- diasporaScattered population sharing origins
- immigrantOne who resettles abroad
- exileBanishment from homeland
homesickness · acculturation · assimilation · identity · belonging · rootlessness · uprooted · expatriate
Mental separation from surroundings
- depersonalizationDetachment from one's identity
- derealizationPerception that surroundings aren't real
- numbnessLoss of sensation
- disconnectionState of being severed
trauma · detachment · fragmentation · self-estrangement · apathy · disengagement · emptiness · identity
Relegation to powerless periphery
- ostracismBanishment from a group
- discriminationUnjust differential treatment
- rejectionDenial of acceptance
- otheringViewing as fundamentally different
disenfranchisement · segregation · prejudice · banishment · shunning · pariah · scapegoating · outcast
Separated by emotional distance
- disaffectionLoss of loyalty
- riftCrack or estrangement
- breachBreaking of agreement
- discordLack of agreement
coolness · indifference · disillusionment · disenchantment · antagonism · hostility · animosity · aversion
Strenuous effort; also childbirth
- exploitationSelfish use of others
- commodityFungible traded good
- capitalismPrivate profit-based economy
- proletariatLaborers lacking capital ownership
bourgeoisie · class · worker · reification · objectification · dehumanization · wage · production
Formal withdrawal from union
- separatismAdvocacy for political breakaway
- disunionState of being divided
- insurgencyArmed uprising against authority
- fragmentationBreaking into smaller pieces
self-determination · breakaway · rebellion · partition · autonomy · independence · dissent · radicalization
loneliness
State of lacking companions
- solitudeState of being alone
- disconnectionState of being severed
- withdrawalAct of taking away
detachment · emptiness · desolation · seclusion · forlornness · abandonment · melancholy · despair · hopelessness · despondency
foreignness
Quality of being unfamiliar
- displacementRemoval from usual location
- diasporaScattered population sharing origins
- immigrantOne who resettles abroad
exile · homesickness · acculturation · assimilation · identity · belonging · rootlessness · uprooted · expatriate · refugee
dissociation
Mental separation from surroundings
- depersonalizationDetachment from one's identity
- derealizationPerception that surroundings aren't real
- numbnessLoss of sensation
disconnection · trauma · detachment · fragmentation · self-estrangement · apathy · disengagement · emptiness · identity · existential
marginalization
Relegation to powerless periphery
- ostracismBanishment from a group
- discriminationUnjust differential treatment
- rejectionDenial of acceptance
othering · disenfranchisement · segregation · prejudice · banishment · shunning · pariah · scapegoating · outcast · blacklisting
estranged
Separated by emotional distance
- disaffectionLoss of loyalty
- riftCrack or estrangement
- breachBreaking of agreement
discord · coolness · indifference · disillusionment · disenchantment · antagonism · hostility · animosity · aversion · bitterness
labor
Strenuous effort; also childbirth
- exploitationSelfish use of others
- commodityFungible traded good
- capitalismPrivate profit-based economy
proletariat · bourgeoisie · class · worker · reification · objectification · dehumanization · wage · production · industry
secession
Formal withdrawal from union
- separatismAdvocacy for political breakaway
- disunionState of being divided
- insurgencyArmed uprising against authority
fragmentation · self-determination · breakaway · rebellion · partition · autonomy · independence · dissent · radicalization · disenfranchisement
- immigrant literatureimmigrant stories, displacement, cultural memory, belonging, assimilation
- literary themesheroism, hero's journey, ennui, social realism, morals
- estrangementrift, disconnection, distance, disaffection, falling out
- isolationloneliness, quarantine, seclusion, lockdown, solitude
- Social rejectionrejection, exclusion, ostracism, snubbed, shunned
- story themeshero, love, villain, quest, journey
alienationconnection
A joining or relation
belonging · intimacy · inclusion · reconciliation · attachment
alienationbelonging
State of fitting in
groundedness · fulfillment · rootedness · at-homeness · sanity
alienationsolidarity
Unity among allies
engagement · unity · union · alliance · coalition
- parental alienationManipulating child against other parent
- social alienationDisconnection from society, self
- cultural alienationDisconnection from one's heritage