An autoethnography of alienation
| Date | 13 September 2023 |
| Pages | 759-765 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/MHSI-08-2023-0082 |
| Published date | 13 September 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Social inclusion |
| Author | Andrew Voyce |
An autoethnography of alienation
Andrew Voyce
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study is to discuss alienation from a viewpoint of autoethnography.
Literature since the 19th century has described the economic determinants of social relations. The
proposition is that human beings are strangers in a world they have created. The author revisits this
paradigmand aims to show the relevance of alienation in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Design/methodology/approach –This paper uses the qualitative methodology of autoethnography
with data fromlived experience. The author relates the author’spersonal experience to the meta-narrative
of alienation.
Findings –Autoethnography is an excellent tool for interpretation of the author’s experiences. The
author’s work life correlates to models of alienation put forward by Marxist and Critical Theory thought.
The author gave the surplus value of the author’s labour to others, and as such, the author’s
autoethnography is an authentic statement. The author’s experiences of poor mental health are in the
contextof pathologyresiding in alienation.
Originality/value –Findings revealthat alienation in work and in mental health is a plausible explanation
for the way that social situations worked for the author. The author’s experiences support a model of
alienation in 20th and 21st century economies. The author shows that the author’s experiences are
shared by othervulnerable people.
Keywords Economic exploitation, Building work, Clerical work, Social control, Alienation, Marxism,
Critical theory, Mental health
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
Before I hit the skids at Reading University when I overindulged in cannabis smoking and
burned all my bridges, the last thing I did was to search the wonderful university library
where I discovered the Marxist notion of alienation. This was the last thing I did before
insanity took over, (Voyce, 2018;Voyceand Carson, 2020) and today in my older years I still
see the relevance of alienation.It is a fertile area to revisit.
Alienation is a subject almost lost in popular dialogue, and my appreciation of its relevance
has been gleaned through lived experience of a lifetime of underachievement. If it is
allowable to “cherry-pick” alienation as a subject from the catalogue of Marxist-inspired
social commentary, it is through such a focus that I can explain and contextualise aspects
of my lifetime, especially my working life(Ollman, 1976;Jaeggi, 2016). That is not to say that
alienation stands alone as a concept, it is rather to state that taking on board an ideology
does not have to follow from the appreciation of the human race being estranged in a world
created by humans. Alienation has a lot to offer as an explanation of this parlous condition.
However that does not mean that I subscribe to scientific socialism or historical inevitability,
class warfare and dialectical materialism.
In the following essay, I will seek to explain my journey from teenager to retirement in an
autoethnographic narrative and critique. I remain uncomfortable with outcomes from the
alienated social and productive system –it does not have to be like this (Jaeggi, 2016).
Even though life can be tolerable, it is not inevitable that exploitation and relations of
Andrew Voyce is based at
CreativeBexhillCIC, Bexhill,
UK.
DOI 10.1108/MHSI-08-2023-0082 VOL. 28 NO. 5 2024, pp. 759-765, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2042-8308 jMENTAL HEALTH AND SOCIAL INCLUSION jPAGE 759
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