The nineteenth century pioneer French sociologist Emile Durkheim
used this word in his book outlining the causes of suicide,
to describes a condition or malaise in individuals,
characterized by an absence or diminution of standards or values,
and an associated feeling of alienation and purposelessness.
Anomie is remarkably common when the surrounding society
has undergone significant changes in economic fortunes,
whether for good or for worse,
and more generally when there is a significant discrepancy
between the ideological theories and values commonly professed
and the practice of everyday life.
The word, spelled anomy or also anomie, has also been used
to apply to societies or groups of people within a society,
who suffer from chaos due to lack of commonly recognized
explict or implicit rules of good conduct,
or worse, to the reign of rules promoting isolation or even predation
rather than cooperation (consider the Ik tribe).
Friedrich Hayek notably uses the word anomy with this meaning.
Anomy as social disorder is not to be confused with anarchy. The word 'anarchy' denotes lack of rulers, hierarchy, command, whereas 'anomy' denotes lack of rules, structure, organization. Many opponents of anarchism claim that anarchy necessarily leads to anomy; however, many anarchists will argue that hierarchical command actually creates chaos, rather than order (e.g., see the Law of Eristic Escalation).
As an older variant, the Webster 1913 reports use of the word anomy
as meaning "disregard or violation of the law".
For the band of the same name, see Anomie (band).\n
Anomie as individual disorder
Anomie as social disorder