Vol. 7, Issue 2, Part E (2025)

This paper is an attempt to explores the evolving sociological imagination of emotional alienation by tracing an intellectual trajectory from Émile Durkheim’s anomie to Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of liquid love. Alienation of affection though rarely theorized explicitly remains a crucial lens to understand how bonds of intimacy, trust, social solidarity are reshaped under the pressures of modernity, post modernity and late modernity. Durkheim’s notion of anomie which is the breakdown of normative regulation offers an early framework for grasping how the weakening of collective conscience produces estrangement not only in economic or political life but also in the realm of emotions and personal ties. Building on this classical foundation, the paper try to examine intermediary contributions such as Marx’s account of alienation, Weber’s insights into rationalization and disenchantment, and Erich Fromm’s reflections on the commodification of love. These perspectives highlight how structural forces gradually transform intimate life, leading to fragility, insecurity, and a loss of stable anchoring in human relationships. The argument culminates with Bauman’s liquid love which captures the precariousness of affect in present globalized consumerist societies. Relationships are increasingly fluid, provisional, and negotiable shaped by new age digital technologies and market logics. Here, affection becomes both intensely desired and persistently unstable reflecting broader dynamics of liquid modernity. By connecting to Durkheim’s anomie to Bauman’s liquid love, this paper proposes a sociological framework for studying the alienation of affection across time. It argues that the dissolution of traditional structures, coupled with the rise of individualized, networked forms of intimacy, constitutes one of the most significant transformations of social life in the twenty-first century.