State, subject and the traumatic effects of the civilization

Abstrakt

This article aims to provide a discussion between the Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and Norbert Elias’s sociological work on the subject of violence as a paradoxical element of the constitution and the disruption of the relationship between individual and society. According to Freud, civilization discontents determine that the cultural bases are held in an individual’s conflict with the body, the external world and the others. The subject of violence is also found in Norbert Elias’s work. Violence emerges from the pact rupture between state and individual and destroys the ability of the citizen to become a person. What are the implications for the psychic economy and social structures in the face of an emergency situation of violence in the public sphere? The paradoxical relationship between violence and civilization, articulated by Norbert Elias to the civilizing process, provides us with elements to answer Freud, when the psychoanalyst questions the implications caused by institutions that should give protection to individuals.