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.

Warren D. TenHouten, Research Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Los Angeles, is the author of nearly 100 publications, including Time and Society (2005), A General Theory of Emotions and Social Life (2007), and Emotion and Reason (2012). His interdisciplinary research interests have spanned the sociology of time, neurosociology, creativity, and life-historical and historiometric research methodology. His current work concerns emotions and the foundations of human rationality.