Some problems of reification in existential psychiatry

conceptual and practical considerations

Frank A. Johnson

pp. 77-102

in: Felix Geyer, David Schweitzer (eds), Theories of alienation, Berlin, Springer, 1976

Abstract

‘Is “alienation”, however, a useful concept for analysis of these modes of human unhappi-ness and frustration? Is it more than a dramatic metaphor which for reasons peculiar to intellectuals’ experience has become their favorite root-metaphor for perceiving the social universe? Is it less, however, a tool for understanding than a projection of the psychology of intellectuals disenchanted with themselves?’ (Feuer, 1963, p. 138).