ALIENATION
new directions in critical theory
,new directions in critical theory
Amy Allen, General Editor
New Directions in Critical Theory presents outstanding classic and contem-
porary texts in the tradition of critical social theory, broadly construed. The
series aims to renew and advance the program of critical social theory, with
a particular focus on theorizing contemporary struggles around gender, race,
sexuality, class, and globalization and their complex interconnections.
Narrating Evil: A Postmetaphysical Theory of Reflective Judgment, María Pía Lara
The Politics of Our Selves: Power, Autonomy, and Gender in Contemporary Critical Theory, Amy
Allen
Democracy and the Political Unconscious, Noëlle McAfee
The Force of the Example: Explorations in the Paradigm of Judgment, Alessandro Ferrara
Horrorism: Naming Contemporary Violence, Adriana Cavarero
Scales of Justice: Reimagining Political Space in a Globalizing World, Nancy Fraser
Pathologies of Reason: On the Legacy of Critical Theory, Axel Honneth
States Without Nations: Citizenship for Mortals, Jacqueline Stevens
The Racial Discourses of Life Philosophy: Négritude, Vitalism, and Modernity, Donna V. Jones
Democracy in What State? Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, Daniel Bensaïd, Wendy Brown,
Jean-Luc Nancy, Jacques Rancière, Kristin Ross, Slavoj Žižek
Politics of Culture and the Spirit of Critique: Dialogues, edited by Gabriel Rockhill and Alfredo
Gomez-Muller
Mute Speech: Literature, Critical Theory, and Politics, Jacques Rancière
The Right to Justification: Elements of Constructivist Theory of Justice, Rainer Forst
The Scandal of Reason: A Critical Theory of Political Judgment, Albena Azmanova
The Wrath of Capital: Neoliberalism and Climate Change Politics, Adrian Parr
Media of Reason: A Theory of Rationality, Matthias Vogel
Social Acceleration: The Transformation of Time in Modernity, Hartmut Rosa
The Disclosure of Politics: Struggles Over the Semantics of Secularization, María Pía Lara
Radical Cosmopolitics: The Ethics and Politics of Democratic Universalism, James Ingram
Freedom’s Right: The Social Foundations of Democratic Life, Axel Honneth
Imaginal Politics: Images Beyond Imagination and the Imaginary, Chiara Bottici
,ALIENATION
RAHEL JAEGGI
Translated by Frederick Neuhouser and Alan E. Smith
Edited by Frederick Neuhouser
columbia university press new york
, columbia university press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2014 Campus Verlag GmbH
English edition copyright © 2014 Columbia University Press
The translation of this work was funded by Geisteswissenschaften International—Translation
Funding for Work in the Humanities and Social Sciences from Germany, a joint initiative
of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the German Federal Foreign Office, the collecting society
VG WORT, and the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers and
Booksellers Association).
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jaeggi, Rahel.
[Entfremdung. English]
Alienation / Rahel Jaeggi; translated by Frederick Neuhouser and Alan E. Smith;
edited by Frederick Neuhouser.
pages cm.—(New directions in critical theory)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-15198-6 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-231-53759-9 (e-book)
1. Alienation (Social psychology) 2. Self psychology. I. Title.
HM1131.J3413 2014
302.5′44—dc23
2013044698
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Jacket Design: Jason Alejandro
References to Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor
Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the
manuscript was prepared.
new directions in critical theory
,new directions in critical theory
Amy Allen, General Editor
New Directions in Critical Theory presents outstanding classic and contem-
porary texts in the tradition of critical social theory, broadly construed. The
series aims to renew and advance the program of critical social theory, with
a particular focus on theorizing contemporary struggles around gender, race,
sexuality, class, and globalization and their complex interconnections.
Narrating Evil: A Postmetaphysical Theory of Reflective Judgment, María Pía Lara
The Politics of Our Selves: Power, Autonomy, and Gender in Contemporary Critical Theory, Amy
Allen
Democracy and the Political Unconscious, Noëlle McAfee
The Force of the Example: Explorations in the Paradigm of Judgment, Alessandro Ferrara
Horrorism: Naming Contemporary Violence, Adriana Cavarero
Scales of Justice: Reimagining Political Space in a Globalizing World, Nancy Fraser
Pathologies of Reason: On the Legacy of Critical Theory, Axel Honneth
States Without Nations: Citizenship for Mortals, Jacqueline Stevens
The Racial Discourses of Life Philosophy: Négritude, Vitalism, and Modernity, Donna V. Jones
Democracy in What State? Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, Daniel Bensaïd, Wendy Brown,
Jean-Luc Nancy, Jacques Rancière, Kristin Ross, Slavoj Žižek
Politics of Culture and the Spirit of Critique: Dialogues, edited by Gabriel Rockhill and Alfredo
Gomez-Muller
Mute Speech: Literature, Critical Theory, and Politics, Jacques Rancière
The Right to Justification: Elements of Constructivist Theory of Justice, Rainer Forst
The Scandal of Reason: A Critical Theory of Political Judgment, Albena Azmanova
The Wrath of Capital: Neoliberalism and Climate Change Politics, Adrian Parr
Media of Reason: A Theory of Rationality, Matthias Vogel
Social Acceleration: The Transformation of Time in Modernity, Hartmut Rosa
The Disclosure of Politics: Struggles Over the Semantics of Secularization, María Pía Lara
Radical Cosmopolitics: The Ethics and Politics of Democratic Universalism, James Ingram
Freedom’s Right: The Social Foundations of Democratic Life, Axel Honneth
Imaginal Politics: Images Beyond Imagination and the Imaginary, Chiara Bottici
,ALIENATION
RAHEL JAEGGI
Translated by Frederick Neuhouser and Alan E. Smith
Edited by Frederick Neuhouser
columbia university press new york
, columbia university press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2014 Campus Verlag GmbH
English edition copyright © 2014 Columbia University Press
The translation of this work was funded by Geisteswissenschaften International—Translation
Funding for Work in the Humanities and Social Sciences from Germany, a joint initiative
of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the German Federal Foreign Office, the collecting society
VG WORT, and the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers and
Booksellers Association).
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jaeggi, Rahel.
[Entfremdung. English]
Alienation / Rahel Jaeggi; translated by Frederick Neuhouser and Alan E. Smith;
edited by Frederick Neuhouser.
pages cm.—(New directions in critical theory)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-15198-6 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-231-53759-9 (e-book)
1. Alienation (Social psychology) 2. Self psychology. I. Title.
HM1131.J3413 2014
302.5′44—dc23
2013044698
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Jacket Design: Jason Alejandro
References to Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor
Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the
manuscript was prepared.