Anomie
In sociology, anomie (/ˈænəmi/) is a social condition defined by an uprooting or breakdown of any moral values, standards or guidance for individuals to follow.[1][2] Anomie is believed to possibly evolve from conflict of belief systems[3] and causes breakdown of social bonds between an individual and the community (both economic and primary socialization).[4] An example is alienation in a person that can progress into a dysfunctional inability to integrate within normative situations of their social world such as finding a job, achieving success in relationships, etc.
For other uses, see Anomie (disambiguation).
The term, commonly understood to mean normlessness, is believed to have been popularized by French sociologist Émile Durkheim in his influential book Suicide (1897). Émile Durkheim suggested that Protestants exhibited a greater degree of anomie than Catholics.[5] However, Durkheim first introduced the concept of anomie in his 1893 work The Division of Labour in Society. Durkheim never used the term normlessness;[6] rather, he described anomie as "derangement", and "an insatiable will."[7] Durkheim used the term "the malady of the infinite" because desire without limit can never be fulfilled; it only becomes more intense.[8]
For Durkheim, anomie arises more generally from a mismatch between personal or group standards and wider social standards; or from the lack of a social ethic, which produces moral deregulation and an absence of legitimate aspirations. This is a nurtured condition:
Synnomie[edit]
Freda Adler coined synnomie as the opposite of anomie.[20][21] Using Émile Durkheim's concept of social solidarity and collective consciousness,[20] Adler defined synnomie as "a congruence of norms to the point of harmonious accommodation".[21]
Adler described societies in a synnomie state as "characterized by norm conformity, cohesion, intact social controls and norm integration". Social institutions such as the family, religion and communities, largely serve as sources of norms and social control to maintain a synnomic society.
In culture[edit]
In Albert Camus's existentialist novel The Stranger, Meursault—the bored, alienated protagonist—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,[22] as seen from the apathy evinced in the opening lines: "Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas" ("Today mum died. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know").
Fyodor Dostoyevsky expresses a similar concern about anomie in his novel The Brothers Karamazov. The Grand Inquisitor remarks that in the absence of God and immortal life, everything would be lawful.[23] In other words, that any act becomes thinkable, that there is no moral compass, which leads to apathy and detachment.
In The Ink Black Heart of the Cormoran Strike novels, written by J. K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, the main antagonist goes by the online handle of "Anomie".[24]