The Civilizing Process is a book by the German sociologist Norbert Elias . It is an influential work in sociology and the most important work of Elías. It was first published in German in 1939. Because of the Second World War it was practically ignored, but it gained popularity when it was reissued in 1969 and translated into English. It covers the history of Europe from approximately 800 AD to 1900.
The first volume of The Civilizing Process, "The History of Customs", traces the historical evolution of the European habitus or "second nature", the psychic structures of the individual in particular shaped by social attitudes. Elias examined how post-medieval European norms relating to violence , sexual behavior , bodily functions, table manners and forms of expression were gradually transformed by rising thresholds of shame and disgust , working towards outside from a dress code. The "self-control" internalized by the increasingly complex networks of social relationships developed the "psychological" self-perceptions that Freud recognizes as the super-ego .
The second volume ofThe Civilizing Process, State formation and civilization , analyzes the causes of these processes. He finds them in the increasingly centralized state of the Modern Age and in the increasingly differentiated and interconnected network of society.
