Loosely translated as "social withdrawal, "hikikomori refers to the state of anomie into which an increasing number of young Japanese seem to fall these days.
They suffer from an epidemic of "anomie," as Harvard psychologist William Pollack told me, adrift in a world of change without the help they need to find their way.
The Sun Also Rises popularized the idea of the "Lost Generation"but the anomie and disappointment at its heart seem to come around for every generation, sooner or later.
ANOMIE OR ACHIEVEMENT? The year is only a dozen days old and already changes are sweeping through Washington, the Middle East and Russia. Anomie has a cure, and it is serious engagement in vital questions.
Jan. 11, 2014 - David Shribman via Yahoo! News
Joel Stein in Times of India Sometime after I left, the town became a maze of charmless Indian strip malls and housing developments. Whenever I go back, I feel what people in Arizona talk about: a sense of loss and anomie and disbelief that anyone can eat food that spicy,...
Wole Soyinka in This Day (registration) Soyinka warned that the country would continue to drift towards "a state of anomie" if government failed to allow the reign of unfettered rule of law in all ramifications.
Robert Storr in Independent Robert Storr, a modern art professor at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, describes the Leipzig painters as "artists who are going back to a literal, descriptive figuration and giving it an air of anomie."