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, namely the prefix a-: "without", and nomos:  "law". The Greeks distinguished between "nomos" (&#957;&#972;&#956;&#959;&#962;) (law), and "arché" (&#913;&#961;&#967;&#942;) (starting rule, axiom, principle). For example, a "monarch" is a single ruler but he or she might still be subject to, and not exempt from, the prevailing laws, i.e. nomos; in the original city state "democracy", the majority rule was an aspect of "arché" because it was a rule-based, customary system which might, or might not, make laws, i.e. "nomos". Thus, the original meaning of anomie defined anything or anyone against or outside the "law", or a condition where the current laws were not applied resulting in a state of illegitimacy or lawlessness. The contemporary English understanding of the word anomie can accept greater flexibility in the word "norm", and some have used the idea of normlessness to reflect a similar situation to the idea of anarchy. But, as used by Émile Durkheim and later theorists, anomie is a reaction against, or a retreat from, the regulatory social controls of society, and is a completely separate concept from a situation of anarchy which is an absence of effective rulers or leaders.

Anomie as individual disorder
The nineteenth century French pioneer sociologist. 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 (referred to as normlessness), 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 to develop Strain Theory, 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 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 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.