Beginning with some common but inadequate ideas, this chapter explains what alienation is. Born into a world not of our own choosing and living lives buffeted by accidents, human beings are capable of being alienated because they, nevertheless, strive to give some sense to their existence. Human lives are profoundly ambiguous, between efforts to be self-directed and the overwhelming power of external forces. This ambiguity is the precondition of alienation. We can succumb to the ambiguity and be alienated or resist and try to give some sense to our lives. This struggle for mastery in one's life takes place in many different episodes, some of which the chapter discusses: work, love, the search for meaning, self-esteem. One can continue the effort to direct one's life if one has a solid sense of one's own worth derived largely from being recognized by other members of groups in which one works.