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In [[Lacan]]'s [[Jacques Lacan:Bibliography|work]] the term implies both [[psychiatric]] and [[philosophical]] references:

[[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>

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>

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]].

[[Alienation]] is an inevitable consequence of the process by which the [[ego]] is constituted by [[identification]] with the [[counterpart]]: