About Alienation

alienation 
A noun
 1 alienation
  the action of alienating; the action of causing to become unfriendly; "his behavior alienated the other students" 
  Category Tree:
act; human action; human activity
╚action
╚alienation
 2 alienation
  (law) the voluntary and absolute transfer of title and possession of real property from one person to another; "the power of alienation is an essential ingredient of ownership" 
  Category Tree:
act; human action; human activity
╚group action
╚transaction; dealing; dealings
╚transfer; transference
╚alienation
 3 alienation, disaffection, estrangement
  the feeling of being alienated from other people 
  Category Tree:
psychological feature
╚feeling
╚dislike
╚alienation, disaffection, estrangement
╚isolation
 4 alienation, estrangement
  separation resulting from hostility 
  Category Tree:
state
╚integrity; unity; wholeness
╚separation
╚isolation
╚alienation, estrangement

alienation

Sense of isolation, powerlessness, and therefore frustration; a feeling of loss of control over one's life; a sense of estrangement from society or even from oneself. As a concept it was developed by German philosophers G W F Hegel and Karl Marx; the latter used it as a description and criticism of the condition that developed among workers in capitalist society.

The term has also been used by non-Marxist writers and sociologists (in particular Emile Durkheim in his work Suicide 1897) to explain unrest in factories and to describe the sense of powerlessness felt by groups such as young people, black people, and women in Western industrial society.