Anna Ürmössy

Alienation and Anomie

– Theories of estrangement by Marx & Engels and Durkheim

In modern societies one often encounters people with the feeling of unhappiness or

estrangement of their life or other people. In sociology, thinkers try to explain these feelings

by analyzing different social and economic factors that can lead to them. Marx called this

sentiment “alienation”, while Durkheim tried to explain the same phenomena by what he

called “anomie”. This essay will discuss and compare these two ideas, with special focus on

firstly their roots and definitions, secondly their role in the condition of modern societies,

thirdly their interconnectedness with the division of labor and lastly, the possible solutions the

authors suggest to “cure” them.

According to Marx and Engels, the feeling of alienation arises because of the distorted

relation between human nature and the mode of labor, which is the result of the capitalist

system. [CITATION Geo11 \p 53 \l 1038 ] Marx and Engels say that labor in a noncapitalist

society is an objectification of a man’s purpose, a material expression of one’s thoughts and

ideas. There should be a direct relation between labor and material needs, meaning that the

work one does should aim to satisfy their desires. Furthermore, labor should also transform

the laborer’s human nature and consciousness, improving him in some way. This

transformation of the individual, as seen by Marx, is inseparable from the transformation of

the whole society. [CITATION Geo11 \p 52-53 \l 1038 ] However, in the capitalist society, labor

does not belong to the workers anymore: it is owned by the capitalist who hires the worker.

Labor ceases to be the objectification of the laborers’ ideas, rather it becomes a ‘task’

bestowed upon them by the owners of production. They cannot decide what they create,

therefor they become alienated from the productive activity. Furthermore, the outcome of the

work, does not belong to the laborer either, if they wish to own it, they have to buy it like
Anna Ürmössy

everyone else. This way, the alienation from the product takes place. There is a social aspect

of the alienation process as well, since the workers usually do not work in a community,

rather with strangers, isolated from each other, or in the corporate business model for

example even made to compete with one another. [CITATION Geo11 \p 53-56 \l 1038 ] Lastly,

the labor enforced by capitalism, estranges humans from their potentials: the most important

characteristic of the species being. [CITATION Geo11 \p 49 \l 1038 ] All in all, for Marx, the

source of alienation is the contradiction between human nature and the current means of

production: labor becomes “external to the worker”, “coerced”, and “merely a means to

satisfy needs external to it”. (Marx, cited from Ritzer, 2011, p. 54)

Compared to Marx and Engels’ materialist perspective Durkheim takes a more ‘personal’

approach when he describes the “illnesses” of modern society. According to him, anomie is a

feeling of rootlessness, normlessness, caused by the lack of regulation and constrains. This

can happen when the usual structures of society are disturbed by something, such as an

economic boom or depression, and the new rules hasn’t been set yet. [CITATION Geo11 \p

93 \l 1038 ] An unpredictable structure and the absence of regulative powers remove people

from their moral environment and make them change their value-system. Without constrains

the people can feel that everything is possible and there are no limits to their dreams.

Therefor they can never be satisfied with what they have, they become slaves to their

desires: “reality seems valueless by comparison with dreams of fevered imaginations”.

[CITATION Emi14 \p 70-71 \l 1038 ] In the society with limitless prosperities and without restrain

the citizens can become anomic. Furthermore, similarly to Marx and Engels, Durkheim also

considers the market as one of the causes for anomie: “this liberation of desires has been

made worse by the very development of industry and almost infinite expansion of the market”

[CITATION Emi14 \p 71 \t \l 1038 ]. He also adds that in this system “the state of crisis and

anomy is constant and so to speak, normal’. [CITATION Emi14 \p 71 \l 1038 ]

Both* authors state that the type of estrangement they analyze is a major contributor to the

problems in modern society. In Marx and Engels’ theory, alienation is an essential part of the
Anna Ürmössy

contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoise. The exploitation of the workers by

the owners of the means a production, the capitalists, leads to alienation, which fosters the

polarization and the conflict between the two classes [CITATION Geo11 \p 59-63 \l 1038 ].

According to Marx and Engels this eternal contradiction will lead to a revolution initiated by

the exploited proletariat. [CITATION Kar14 \p 38 \n \l 1038 ] Durkheim, on the other hand,

envisions a very different consequence for estrangement. He describes anomie as one of the

four main causes for suicide: when the person becomes overwhelmed with his freedom, he

turns to self-destructing actions, including suicide. [ CITATION Emi14 \l 1038 ] The main

difference between these two perspectives in my opinion is that Marx and Engels believe that

alienation will help to form a bond between those who suffer from it, and that will create a

collective action, whereas in Durkheim’s view anomie will lead to the loss of common

morality and the weakening of solidarity. [CITATION Geo11 \p 88 \l 1038 ]

Although their ideas of the outcomes differ, both* sociologists assume that the conditions

they describe are somehow related to the division of labor. For Marx and Engels, the division

of labor is the root of inequalities in society [CITATION Kar141 \p 51 \n \l 1038 ]. By this division

the society is separated in two classes: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The former owns

the means of production and its aim to produce as efficiently as possible, to compete with

other capitalists. The latter however, is forced to sell its labor power, to survive in the

capitalist system. The capitalist class dictates the working conditions, while trying to

maximize the profits, which is only possible by the exploitation of the workers: the profit

derives from the surplus value created by the workers, nonetheless it is not them who get

this money. [CITATION Geo11 \p 59-62 \l 1038 ] This ‘unnatural’ transformation of labor is what

leads to the alienation of the proletariat. As I see it, Durkheim’s idea about the anomic

division of labor is fairly similar. In his point of view, when mechanical solidarity weakens in a

society, meaning that the members lose their common morality, individualization and

isolation takes place. Without strong regulation a pathological division of labor develops:

**
Marx and Engels counted as one in these instances
Anna Ürmössy

people become absorbed in their specialized tasks and they become disconnected from their

communities. [CITATION Geo11 \p 88 \l 1038 ] Being detached from others leads to the rise of

anomie in society.

The two theories differ highly in terms of the “cures” they suggest, in order the resolve the

“illness” of estrangement. Marx and Engels say, that the problem of alienation is rooted

deeply in the contradictions of capitalism, therefor the only way to eliminate the problem is by

a radical social and economic change. [CITATION Geo11 \p 56 \l 1038 ] A worker might identify

with their workplace, as we often see it nowadays, when people say their company is “their

life”, but according to Marx and Engels this is only a symptom of alienation, and that the

revolution is inevitable because of the contradictions in the system. [CITATION Kar14 \p 40 \t \l

1038 ] In my opinion capitalism has overcome some of its problems that made its failure

unavoidable according to Marx and Engels. In The Communist Manifesto [CITATION Kar14

\n \t \l 1038 ] he writes that the proletariat will have “nothing to lose but their chains”,

however, nowadays most people feel they do have something to lose, even if it is just

meaningless commodities they are attached to. Nonetheless I still consider alienation a

cause of general unhappiness, but the system around it evolved since the 19th century and

got better at hiding it from people by the power of mass media and advertisement for

instance. On the contrary to Marx and Engels’ radical ideas Durkheim believes that anomie

can be decreased by stronger regulation and a more ‘natural’ division of labor. However, he

warns against the kind of rules, which are based on outdated norms and inequalities

between social groups. As he puts it, these kinds of rules lead to “unjust advantages”, and

result in a similarly wrong, forced division of labor. [CITATION Geo11 \p 88-89 \l 1038 ] In a way

the different solutions are reasonable, since the definitions of alienation and anomie define

different issues as the roots of the problems.

All in all, despite the differences in their definitions, both authors touched upon a similar

problem, which is still, if not even more, relevant today. Quarterlife and midlife crises are

considered normal, depression and different anxieties are more and more common among
Anna Ürmössy

people, and these issues are often examined as individual problems. In my opinion it would

be important to see that these are not just isolated instances, but are part of a social pattern,

arising from a system which generates estrangement and isolation by its very functioning.

Works Cited

Durkheim, E. (1897/2014). Egoistic Suicide and Anomic Suicide. In J. Farganis, Reading in Social

Theory (pp. 64-72). New York: McGraw-Hill Companies.

Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1848/2014). The Manifesto of the Communist Party. In J. Farganis, Reading in

Social Theory (pp. 31-43). New York: McGraw-Hill Companies.

Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1932/2014). The German Ideology. In J. Farganis, Reading in Social Theory (pp.

50-53). New York: McGraw-Hill Companies.

Ritzer, G. (2011). Sociological Theory. New York: McGraw Hill Companies.