ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to glean something of what psychoanalysis can learn from how sociologists and psychosocial researchers have investigated class as it is lived, experienced and felt about. Norbert Elias' epic study, The Civilising Process, is an historical survey, in great depth and detail, of the class distinctions prevailing at different periods in Western Europe. What this reveals is that while the precise criteria differentiating one class from another change historically and according to locality, class distinction per se does not. Pierre Bourdieu's theorisations of class shows the many subjective, qualitative and quantitative micro-distinctions through which class is lived and perceived. However, for any understanding of how class works in and through persons, as a whole figuration of a social field, and how dominant values operate alongside economic inequalities, it is essential to address the more privileged classes and their subjectivities.
