ABSTRACT
The social process of work has three components: people, their activities, and the product of their activities. Each of these elements can be alienated. Thus the phenomenon of alienation can conveniently be analyzed in terms of three different processes: the alienation of labor, the alienation of the product of labor, and the alienation of a person from other people and the society. The alienation of labor occurs when the worker is alienating his labor power by selling it to the employer. The sale normally results in the exchange of labor power for money, but need not. Alienation of the product of labor is a direct consequence of the alienation of labor. “The product of labour is labour which has been embodied in an object and turned into a physical thing; this product is an objectification of labour. The process of work results in the objectification of labor. The process of reification occurs somewhat differently in capitalism and in etatism.
