Norbert Elias and psychoanalysis: involvements and detachments

Abstract

This article presents the influence of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis on Norbert Elias’s thought, recognized by the sociologist himself, demonstrating that the body acts as an articulating element on the relationship between individual and society. However, N. Elias was also a critic of Freudian work, intending to go beyond it. We identify, however, that certain elements of civilizing process theory were already present in Freud’s understanding of social processes.