Anomie: Encyclopedia - Anomie

Anomie

Anomie, in contemporary English, means a condition or malaise in individuals, characterized by an absence or diminution of standards or values.

The word comes from Greek a-: "without", and nomos: "law". This term was used by the Greeks to define anything or anyone against the rules or a condition where the present laws were not applied (illegitimacy, unlawfulness). The contemporary English understanding of the word anomie differs from how the term was originally defined and used by Greeks, often becoming a synonym of the word Αναρχία (see Anarchy). In Greek there is a difference between the word "nomos" (νόμος)(law), and the word "arché" (Αρχή)(starting rule, axiom, principle). For example, majority rule is an "arché" and not a "nomos".

Anomie - Anomie as individual disorder

The nineteenth century French pioneer sociologist Émile Durkheim used this word in his book outlining the causes of suicide, to describe a condition or malaise in individuals, characterized by an absence or diminution of standards or values, and an associated feeling of alienation and purposelessness. Anomie is remarkably common when the surrounding society has undergone significant changes in economic fortunes, whether for good or for worse, and more generally when there is a significant discrepancy between the ideological theories and values commonly professed and the practice of everyday life.

In Durkheim's view, traditional religions often provided the basis for the shared values which the anomic individual lacks. Furthermore, he argues that the division of labor prevalent in modern economic life since the Industrial Revolution leads individuals to pursue egoistic ends rather than seeking the good of a larger community.

Robert King Merton also adopted the idea of anomie in his work, defining it as the discrepancy between common social goals and the legitimate means to attain those goals. In other words, an individual suffering from anomie will strive to attain the common goals of a specific society yet cannot reach these goals legitimately due to various social limitations. As a result the individual will exhibit deviant behavior in order to satisfy him or herself.

Anomie - Anomie as social disorder

The word, which can also be spelled anomy, has also been used to apply to societies or groups of people within a society, who suffer from chaos due to lack of commonly recognized explicit or implicit rules of good conduct, or worse, to the reign of rules promoting isolation or even predation rather than cooperation.

Friedrich Hayek notably uses the word anomy with this meaning.

Anomy as a social disorder is not to be confused with anarchy. The word 'anarchy' denotes lack of rulers, hierarchy, and command, whereas 'anomy' denotes lack of rules, structure and organization. Many opponents of anarchism claim that anarchy necessarily leads to anomy; however, almost all anarchists will argue that hierarchical command actually creates chaos, rather than order (e.g., see the Law of Eristic Escalation).

As an older variant, the Webster 1913 dictionary reports use of the word anomy as meaning "disregard or violation of the law".

Anomie - Anomie in literature and film

In Albert Camus's existentialist novel The Stranger, the protagonist Mersault struggles to construct an individual system of values as he responds to the disappearance of the old. He exists largely in a state of anomie, as seen from the apathy evinced in the opening lines: "Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas." ("Today Mother died. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know.") Camus expresses Mersault's conflict with the value structure provided by traditional religion in a dialogue near the book's close with a Catholic priest who exclaims, "Do you want my life to be meaningless?"

Dostoevsky, whose work is often considered a philosophical precursor to existentialism, often expressed a similar concern in his novels. In The Brothers Karamazov, the character Dimitri Karamazov asks his atheist friend Rakitin, "'...without God and immortal life? All things are lawful then, they can do what they like?'" Raskolnikov, the anti-hero of Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment, puts this philosophy into action when he kills an elderly pawnbroker and her sister, later rationalizing this act to himself with the words, "...it wasn't a human being I killed, it was a principle!"

More recently, the protagonist of Martin Scorsese's film Taxi Driver and the protagonist of Fight Club, written originally by Chuck Palahniuk and later made into a film, could be said to suffer from anomie.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Anomie", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomie, used and available under the GNU Free Documentation License.