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Norbert Elias and Psychoanalysis: The Historical Sociology of Emotions

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The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Human Sciences

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Abstract

This chapter outlines the ways in which the historical sociology of emotions should be seen as positioned between three allied fields of study: the sociology of emotions, the history of emotions, and historical sociology more broadly. It examines the work of the leading historical sociologist who has been highly influential across all these fields, Norbert Elias, explaining the main elements of his analysis of emotions, highlighting the relationship between his conceptual approach and that of Sigmund Freud and later psychoanalytic theory. Outlining the nuances and complexities of Elias’s relationship to Freud and psychoanalysis functions as a useful window onto the core issues and debates characterizing the historical sociology of emotions, being a leading example of how the disciplines of sociology, history, and psychology can be brought to bear on the analysis of emotions in a variety of ways. Three conceptual issues are examined: (1) how the “drivenness” of emotions should be understood with reference to Freud’s theory of drives and Elias’s revision of that theory; (2) Elias’s critique of the “closed personality” image of human beings and his emphasis on the constitution of emotional experience within social relations; (3) the question of how the psychic agency responsible for the management and control of emotions, Freud’s “superego,” can be seen as having developed over time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Robert van Krieken

  2. School of Sociology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Robert van Krieken

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  1. Robert van Krieken
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Correspondence to Robert van Krieken .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    David McCallum

Section Editor information

  1. University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

    Marta Bucholc

  2. School of Sociology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Stephen Mennell

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van Krieken, R. (2022). Norbert Elias and Psychoanalysis: The Historical Sociology of Emotions. In: McCallum, D. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Human Sciences. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7255-2_58

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