Feeling like a stranger, even when among familiar people or places, and being unable to identify with a culture, family, or peer group. Alienation is common in adolescents and also occurs in people who are isolated by cultural or language differences. In some people, it may be an early symptom of schizophrenia or a personality disorder.
n. 1. a feeling of estrangement, important to overcome in communication with patients who are from different cultures or backgrounds from the clinician. 2. (in psychiatry) see thought alienation.
a symptom of psychosis in which patients feel that their own thoughts are in some way no longer within their control. It includes *thought insertion, *thought withdrawal, and *thought broadcast. Any form of thought alienation is a *Schneiderian first-rank symptom, highly indicative of schizophrenia.... thought alienation
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