anomie

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a social condition, theorised by Émile Durkheim, in which the normal regulatory norms that bind individuals to a shared moral order have broken down or are absent, leaving people without clear guidance about what constitutes acceptable behaviour and what goals are worth pursuing; anomie arises during periods of rapid social change, economic crisis, or cultural disruption and is associated with elevated rates of suicide, deviance, and social disintegration; Robert Merton later adapted the concept to explain how cultural goals and structural means can become misaligned, producing strain and deviant adaptations