Alienation and Affect

Description

Alienation has objective, social-structural determinants, yet is experienced subjectively as a psychological state involving both emotion and cognition. Part I considers conceptualizations of alienation and affect in historical context, emphasizing Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, Simmel, and Weber. Part II develops a theory of the affective bases of Seeman’s original five varieties of alienation – normlessness, meaninglessness, self-estrangement, cultural estrangement, and powerlessness. The book argues that both normlessness and cultural estrangement manifest in two distinct forms and involve distinct emotions. Thus it develops the affective bases of seven distinct varieties of alienation. This work synthesizes classical and contemporary alienation theory and the sociology of emotions. It contributes to political sociology, and finds application in social psychiatry and related health and social-service fields that treat traumatized and highly alienated individuals. Cover Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of figures List of tables Preface Acknowledgements Introduction The concept of alienation The plan of the book PART I Alienation and affect in historical context 1 Alienation and affect, from the ancient world to early modernity Alienation in the ancient world Alienation in medieval and early modern times 17th- and 18th-century social contract theorists Grotius Hobbes Locke Rousseau Notes 2 Alienation and affect in 18th- and 19th-century social philosophy From early modernity to the Enlightenment Enlightenment rationalism, Enlightenment sentimentalism, and the passions The roots of romanticism and romantic notions of alienation Romantic opposition to reason and science Religion, and alienation from passion and sexuality Imagination and aesthetic expression Critique of industrial, capitalistic society Notes 3 Alienation, from Hegel and Feuerbach to Marx and Engels Hegel Alienation and emotion in Hegel Alienation and social dominance in Hegel Feuerbach Economic alienation: from Winstanley, Smith, Ferguson, and Schiller to Marx and Engels Alienation of bourgeois, Christian culture from passionate human nature The estrangement of labor in capitalistic production Marx and Engels abandon the concept of alienation Assessing Marx: from dialectical materialism to prophetic vision Notes 4 Alienation and affect in the late 19th and the 20th centuries Simmel Subject and object Means and ends Emotion and reason Transcending alienation through artistic creativity Weber The alienating conditions of the modern world Instrumental and substantive rationality Alienation, socialism, the New Left, and the counterculture Notes PART II Emotions basic to specific varieties of alienation: contemporary theory and research 5 Emotions as adaptive reactions to problems of life Introduction to Part II The concept of primary emotions The case for primary emotions The case against primary emotions Emotions and social relations Plutchik’s psychoevolutionary model of the primary emotions MacLean’s rescue of Plutchik Fiske’s social-relations model sociologically generalizes the Plutchik–MacLean model From primary to higher-order emotions Discussion Notes 6 Normlessness, anomie, and the emotions Introduction Active, intentional normlessness1–anomie1 Active, intentional normlessness1 Anomie1 Passive, unintentional normlessness2–anomie2 Passive, unintentional normlessness2 Anomie2 Emotions in Durkheim’s social types of suicide Ruthlessness and the emotions of active, intentional anomie1 Contempt Pride Derisiveness Discouragement and the emotions of passive, unintentional anomie2 Disappointment Shame The fear component of shame The sadness component of shame Alarm Two causal models Discussion 7 Self-estrangement and despair Introduction Self-estrangement and the primary emotions of sadness, disgust, and surprise Despair: its depth and episodic nature Despair as a tertiary emotion The disappointment of experiencing rejection/disgust A collapse of territory: surprise and loneliness A shocking, saddening loss Consequences of self-estrangement and despair Excessive reliance on logic Alexithymia Emptiness Hubristic pride Discussion Notes 8 Meaninglessness, ressentiment , and resentment Introduction: meaningfulness and meaninglessness Meaninglessness, suffering, ressentiment , and resentment Forceful and helpless resentment Resentment as a tertiary emotion Anger Disgust Surprise Primary–secondary emotional pathways to resentment A contemptible breach of normative boundaries An angering culture shock A disgusting outrage Discussion Notes 9 Cultural estrangement and the emotions Introduction Cultural estrangement1 as rejection of, and disdain for, societal values and meanings The primary and secondary emotional components of disdain Sociomoral disgust and its function of rejection Anticipation Anger State anger and cynicism: an explosive combination Aggressiveness expressing disgust An anticipation of contempt Cultural estrangement2 as failure to ‘live up to’ cultural values Existential dread as a tertiary emotion Anticipation of alarm–awe Surprise and anxiety A fearful confusion Discussion Note 10 The emotions of powerlessness Introduction Objective and subjective powerlessness in alienation theory The emotional basis of subjective powerlessness The four primary emotions of powerlessness Sadness Fear Acceptance–acquiescence Anticipation–expectation The six secondary emotions of subjective powerlessness Fatalism Pessimism Resignation Anxiety Submissiveness Shame Objective powerlessness Social inequality Social inferiority Social invisibility Economic distress External locus of control A content-analytic study of life-historical interviews with Australian Aborigines and Euro-Australians Wordlist indicators of objective and subjective powerlessness Culture and sex differences Two measurement models A confirmatory causal model Discussion 11 A summing up, competing sociological models of alienation, and issues in alienation theory and research Introduction Valence, focus, and clustering of the emotions of alienation The externally focused cluster of tertiary emotions The internally focused cluster of tertiary emotions, together with the emotions of powerlessness Alternative sociological models of alienation The emotions of alienation, 31 and possibly counting Issues in contemporary alienation theory and research Notes References Name index Subject index