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INTRODUCTION
Capital therefore takes no account of the health and the length of life of the worker ...(Marx, 1990, p. 381).
Alienation is one of Marx's more famous theories where he attempts to illuminate the lived experiences of capitalism, highlighting the lack of control and self-realization in the labour process. Marx himself throughout his work powerfully comments on how alienation has a variety of debilitating effects on the health of the worker in capitalist society which, 'squanders human beings, living labour, more readily than any other mode of production, squandering not only flesh and blood, but nerves and brain as well' (1991, p. 182). Situated in a family of concepts and theories that bring together economics, emotions and embodiment alienation theory should have some appeal, whether negatively or positively, for medical sociology. However, in the literature it is largely neglected and under-theorized. This is not just within the general body of medical sociology but also evident, interestingly, in writers approaching health from a Marxist perspective.
I seek to address this theoretical lacuna and attempt to highlight the profile of Marx's work on alienation and how it may be useful in further theorizing health and health inequalities. This paper does so by drawing from classical Marxism (Anderson, 1976) concentrating mainly on the works of Marx and Engels. Falling into three main parts, the paper initially explores why the time is right to consider alienation theory given current concerns with theory generally within medical sociology and medical sociology's interest with the body and emotions. The paper then proceeds to outline alienation theory. This begins by examining Marx's materialist ontology highlighting that Marx's concerns with the body and emotions are evident throughout the whole of Marx's project, before moving onto what alienation does and does not mean. Finally, the paper looks at the four aspects of alienation that Marx identifies where, by viewing examples from the empirical literature in a Marxist light, the relevance for alienation theory to health and health inequalities is highlighted.
ALIENATION THEORY - WHY HERE AND WHY NOW?
There are two main reasons why Marx's alienation theory can be of use for understanding health and health inequalities. The first reason is that there is a general discussion about theory within medical sociology with tensions...