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In [[Lacan]]'s [[Jacques Lacan:Bibliography|work]] the term implies both [[psychiatric]] and [[philosophical]] references:
=====Psychiatry=====
[[French]] [[psychiatry]] in the nineteenth century (e.g. Pinel) conceived of mental illness as ''[[alienation|aliénation mentale]]'', and a common term in [[French]] for "[[madness|madman]]" is ''[[alienation|aliéné]].''<ref>{{Ec}} p. 154</ref>
=====Philosophy=====The term "[[alienation]]" is the usual translation for the [[German]] term ''[[alienation|Entfremdung]]'' which features in the '''[[philosophy]] ''' of [[Hegel]] and [[Marx]].
However, the [[Lacan]]ian concept of [[alienation]] differs greatly from the ways that the term is employed in the [[Hegel]]ian and [[Marx]]ist tradition.<ref>{{S11}} p. 215</ref>
=====Subject=====For [[Lacan]], [[alienation]] is not an accident that befalls the '''[[subject]] ''' and which can be transcended, but an essential constitutive feature of the '''[[subject]]'''.
The [[subject]] is fundamentally '''[[split]]''', [[alienation|alienated]] from himself, and there is no escape from this [[division]], no possibility of "[[wholeness]]" or [[synthesis]].
=====Ego=====
[[Alienation]] is an inevitable consequence of the process by which the '''[[ego]] ''' is constituted by '''[[identification]] ''' with the [[counterpart]]:
<blockquote>"The initial synthesis of the ego is essentially an alter ego, it is alienated."<ref>{{S3}} p. 39</ref></blockquote>
In Rimbaud's words, "I is an other."<ref>{{E}} p. 23</ref>
=====Imaginary=====Thus [[alienation]] belongs to the '''[[imaginary]] [[order]]''':
<blockquote>"Alienation is constitutive of the imaginary order. Alienation is the imaginary as such."<ref>{{S3}} p. 146</ref></blockquote>
=====Psychosis=====Although [[alienation]] is an essential characteristic of all [[subjectivity]], '''[[psychosis]] ''' represents a more extreme form of [[alienation]].
====="Extimacy"=====[[Lacan]] coined the term "'''[[extimacy]]'' '" to designate the nature of this [[alienation]], in which [[alterity]] inhabits the innermost core of the [[subject]].
=====Separation=====[[Lacan]] devotes the whole of chapter 16 of [[Seminar_XI|The Seminar, Book XI, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis]] (1964a) to a discussion of [[alienation]] and the related concept of '''[[separation]]'''.
==See Also==
