Individual Alienation
The estrangement from oneself: a core concept in Marxist and existentialist thought. Individual alienation is the feeling that you are not the author of your own life—that your desires, beliefs, and actions are shaped by forces outside your control (capitalism, media, family, state). You perform roles you did not choose, you want what you are told to want, you work at jobs that leave you hollow. The “real you” feels buried under expectations, schedules, and obligations. Individual alienation is the quiet crisis of not knowing who you are when the masks are removed.
Example: “She looked in the mirror and saw a stranger wearing her face—individual alienation, the self as a product rather than a source.”
Individual Alienation by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal April 15, 2026
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