Dizionario di Politica

Authors: Bobbio, Matteucci, Pasquino
Summary: The entry defines the term and notes its major uses in political theory. Alienation refers to a particular psycho-sociological situation: the loss of one's personal and collective identity, connected with or due to a situation of dependency and lack of autonomy.
In political theory, the term was first used by contract theorists, to explain the basis of the State and political society. Alienation in its modern sense was emphasized by Marx and Engels as part of their analysis of the capitalist mode of production. In the mid-20th century, the concept of alienation was extended to every aspect of our civilization by Luk…cs, Marcuse, and Sartre.