Schiller's contribution to the development of the Hegelian and Marxian concepts of «alienation» has been trivialised and misrepresented in recent scholarship. His role in the propagation of these ideas is shown to derive not from the second-hand contents of his «Portrait of the Age» in the «Letters on Aesthetic Education» but rather from his characteristic manner of handling his received materials. His treatment of the malaise of modern man is examined against the background of conventions governing the use of received ideas and imagery which operated in the 18th century world of discourse along with the repercussions of his portrait in Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind and Marx's «Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts» of 1844.

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.

Alienation After Derrida rearticulates the Hegelian-Marxist theory of alienation in the light of Derrida's deconstruction of the metaphysics of presence. Simon Skempton aims to demonstrate in what way Derridian deconstruction can itself be said to be a critique of alienation. In so doing, he argues that the acceptance of Derrida's deconstructive concepts does not necessarily entail the acceptance of his interpretations of Hegel and Marx. In this way the book proposes radical reinterpretations, not only of Hegel and Marx, but of Derridian deconstruction itself. The critique of the notions of alienation and de-alienation is a key component of Derridian deconstruction that has been largely neglected by scholars to date. This important new study puts forward a unique and original argument that Derridian deconstruction can itself provide the basis for a rethinking of the concept of alienation, a concept that has received little serious philosophically engaged attention for several decades.

Theories of alienation had a long history, burgeoned since the 1960s, yet almost disappeared in recent decades – but in his book, Christoph Henning brings these theories back on the agenda, to better account for contemporary social pathologies. Feelings of estrangement, of not feeling at home in the world, in one’s own body or surroundings, are widespread in contemporary societies. They go hand in hand with loneliness, with a burnout, with depression or with anger and hatred. But where do they come from, what do they signify? Henning tracks theories of alienation from three different traditions: first, a conservative approach from Rousseau to Hartmut Rosa explains alienation with change and is based on nostalgia; second, a liberal approach from Simmel to Rahel Jaeggi relies on individual autonomy and explains it as a loss of control; and third, an Aristotelian approach from Humboldt to Marx or British idealism, based on theories of flourishing, relies on a perfectionist anthropology and critical social theory. In doing so, Henning vividly reconstructs these traditions with contemporary examples and excursions into the movies. Theories of Alienation: From Rousseau to the Present shines important new light on this important field of contemporary social philosophy and is very approachable to the general reader.