alienation

 
Pronunciation: /eɪlɪəˈneɪʃ(ə)n/

noun

[mass noun]
  • 1the state or experience of being alienated: a sense of alienation from our environment unemployment may generate a sense of political alienation
  • (in Marxist theory) a condition of workers in a capitalist economy, resulting from a lack of identity with the products of their labour and a sense of being controlled or exploited.
  • Psychiatry a state of depersonalization or loss of identity in which the self seems unreal, thought to be caused by difficulties in relating to society and the resulting prolonged inhibition of emotion.
  • (also alienation effect) Theatre an effect, sought by some dramatists, whereby the audience remains objective and does not identify with the actors.
  • 2 Law the transfer of the ownership of property rights: most leases contain restrictions against alienation

Origin:

late Middle English: from Latin alienatio(n-), from the verb alienare 'estrange', from alienus (see alien). The term alienation effect (1940s) is a translation of German Verfremdungseffekt