Alienation

In Marx, as shall be seen, alienation is the separation between man and his life-activity, his product, society and the species. Each of these four relations can be seen as one aspect of man being separated from himself. A man's life-activity is his work. In a capitalist society, the worker is alienated from his labour - 'he plays no part in deciding what to do or how to do it' (2). The division of labour ensures …

…of man at work. All four are related aspects of alienation of man under capitalism. 'The theory of alienation is the intellectual constraint in which Marx displays the devastating effect of capitalist production on human beings, on their physical and mental states and on the social process of which they are a part' (7). All aspects of alienation, therefore, can be explained in terms of the links between the mode of production, and the actors involved.