 The claim that alienation is necessarily a negative, but not a wholly negative, phenomenon can be addressed in two parts. Defending the first part of that claim looks straightforward enough. Alienation, on the present account, consists in the separation of certain entities – a subject and some object—that properly belong together. As a result, alienation always involves a loss or lack of something of value, namely, the ‘proper’—rational, natural, or good—harmony or connectedness between the relevant subject and object. 