Meaning & use
self-alienation psychology
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Meanings
noununcountabletechnical
The branch of psychology that studies the feeling of being cut off from your own true self, feelings, or identity.
Grammar: Used as an uncountable subject name: it takes a singular verb, as in 'Self-alienation psychology examines...'.
Patterns
- self-alienation psychology examines something
- research in self-alienation psychology
- a self-alienation psychology perspective
Self-alienation psychology asks why people can feel like strangers to themselves.
Her thesis is in self-alienation psychology, so she reads a lot about identity and modern work.
Courses in self-alienation psychology often begin with the idea that the self is shaped by society.
noununcountablespecialist
A way of explaining someone's distress as a sign that they have lost contact with their own real needs or values.
Grammar: Often used after 'a' with an adjective, as in 'a Marxist self-alienation psychology'.
Patterns
- a self-alienation psychology of something
- explain something through self-alienation psychology
The author offers a self-alienation psychology of burnout: workers stop recognizing their own wishes.
He used a self-alienation psychology to explain why the character cannot enjoy his success.
Common combinations
- the psychology of self-alienation
- The psychology of self-alienation looks at how people lose a sense of who they are.
- research in self-alienation psychology
- Recent research in self-alienation psychology focuses on social media and identity.
- a self-alienation psychology perspective
- From a self-alienation psychology perspective, the problem is not laziness but lost meaning.
- self-alienation psychology literature
- The self-alienation psychology literature is small but growing.
Synonyms and how they differ
- alienation studies
- A broader term for academic work on feeling separated from self, work, or society; it is not limited to psychology.
- ego psychology
- A different school that studies how the ego manages inner and outer demands, not specifically the feeling of being estranged from oneself.
Word family
- self-alienation noun
- The feeling or state of being separated from your own self or feelings.
- alienation noun
- A general term for being cut off from other people, work, or oneself.
- alienated adjective
- Feeling distant or disconnected from others or from yourself.
- psychologist noun
- A person who studies or treats the mind and behavior.
Commonly confused: self-alienation psychology or self-alienation? self-alienation psychology or dissociation?
self-alienation psychology vs self-alienation
This names the experience itself, while 'self-alienation psychology' names the academic study of that experience.
self-alienation psychology vs dissociation
A clinical term for a disruption in memory, identity, or awareness; self-alienation is broader and can be an ordinary feeling of not recognizing yourself.
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrase correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Self-alienation psychology' names a field of study, so it fits 'studies ... at university.' Option 0 is wrong because the field is singular and takes 'is', and because a field is not a feeling. Option 2 confuses the field with the feeling itself. Option 3 wrongly defines the field as a single everyday emotion.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “self-alienation psychology”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.