Attention is fundamentally alienated because it is always directed at something else.

Evidence

If attention does not stay still, this is not only because it feels the urge to move, but because it has no proper place: attention is essentially ‘alienated’ in that it is always attention to something other than itself. Always? Not quite … — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 509

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes Marx’s alienation concept applied to the cognitive sphere — a Frankfurt School move. — connects to: Attention is the most personal possession yet exists only as something to be alienated — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 20; Attention always responds to something else and never rests still.; Attention is a vector, not a scalar, because it aims beyond itself — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 238 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Attention is the most personal possession yet exists only as something to be alienated #expands (0.92) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 20
• Attention is a vector, not a scalar, because it aims beyond itself #expands (0.85) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 238
• Consciousness has no content because it is always directed outward at objects #corroborates (0.82) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 129
• Attention always responds to something else and never rests still. #exemplifies (0.80)
• Attention as means differs fundamentally from attention as end in itself #expands (0.75) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 484
• Reflexive attention takes another person’s attention as its own object. #qualifies (0.72) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 466