Rousseau and the Paradox of Alienation

In the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one finds the bridge between the now-dominant psycho-social conception of alienation and the legal-political conception that prevailed prior to Rousseau. Rousseau'¬"s transformation of the concept lays much of the groundwork for Marx'¬"s later, more explicit discussions of man'¬"s alienation. Rousseau'¬"s Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality depicts the development of man'¬"s awareness of himself as a conscious and moral being, illustrating man'¬"s journey from a natural state of self-sufficiency to one of dependence and alienation. Paradoxically, Rousseau determines that, only through man'¬"s total alienation of himself to the community, can he be restored to a state of wholeness, free from the alienating effects of civil society. Like Marx, Rousseau believed that alienation can only be transcended through the merging of the individual and the community.