Individual alienation and information processing

a systems theoretical conceptualization

pp. 189-223

in: Felix Geyer, David Schweitzer (eds), Theories of alienation, Berlin, Springer, 1976

Abstract

Even the most perfunctory review of the literature on alienation shows the abundance of alienation concepts currently in use. Their definitions are often vague, self-contradictory or overlapping. The concept has a different content in almost every one of the social sciences, partly because it is employed to explain such disparate phenomena as "deviant' behavior in criminology, voter apathy in political science, schizophrenia in psychiatry, disturbances in interpersonal contacts in social psychology and powerlessness in sociology. Moreover, within each of these sciences several schools of thought develop their own concept; in fact, almost every author tries to do so.