Once More, With Feeling: Marx’s Theory of Alienation and the Mind-Body-Earth Connection

• In Event: 447 - Section on Social Psychology Roundtable Session (co-sponsored with Section on Sociology of Emotions)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 05. Self-Efficacy and Self-Esteem

Abstract

Alienation is frequently considered as an abstract theory in a manner that fails to consider the human subject as a physical actor moving through the social world. In this paper I explore Marx’s theory of alienation as a material process that operates through a bio-physical emotional feedback loop with social relationships. Of the four aspects of alienation delineated by Marx, alienation from nature is the foundational form of alienation, and as such a materially focused study of alienation that accounts for alienation as an embodied emotional process is highly relevant to studies of the human relation to nature, and how environments shape and are shaped by societies. I posit that the emerging sociological studies of emotions and embodiment offer a framework within which we can ground a more abstract reading of the concept of alienation and call for recognition of the link between “nature”, bodies, emotional processes, and the social world. Recognizing this connection has implications for how we think about the relationship between society and nature.

Author

• Allison Ford, University of Oregon