Crises of a Society in Ferment

Many of the problems confronting us today have a significance quite different from the meanings traditionally ascribed to them and to the social contexts to which they relate. Our notions about "alienated and estranged" individuals need re- examination. It would prove profitable to examine the agencies, institutions, and organizations to which we uncritically subscribe and to apply the ideas of alienation and estrangement to the institutional framework itself. The stresses within law enforce ment, correction, welfare, and other "helping and service" agen cies suggest that the traditional services may be viewed as estranged and alienated from many people rather than the reverse.