Abstract

The 1844 Manuscripts manifest two discordant tendencies. On the one hand, Marx develops the existing thematics of alienation. To do so, the notion is referred back to its (Hegelian, Feuerbachian) sources in the analysis of the dispossession of the products of labour. On the other hand, Marx seeks to formulate a more immanent approach, focusing on certain specific, pathological forms of life, characterised by a condition of subjective suffering and by the objective limitation of the activities and interests of the individual. It is this immanent approach to alienation which today appears to us to be the most promising, in terms of social theory. The approach must however be coupled with an inquiry which addresses questions of living and questions of health to which Marx did not himself propose the elements of a response.