ABSTRACT
Emile Durkheim, Marcel Mauss and Sigmund Freud discussed symbolism and symbolisation in various different texts which marked different stages of their reflection. The social solidarity symbolised by cooperative law having restitutive sanctions is produced by the social division of labour, a particular form, according to Durkheim, of the physiological division of labour. Already in 1897, Durkheim considered that any society, any "collective existence" constituted through the union of individual consciousnesses, thinks and expresses itself through symbols. The set of symbols then forms a system, a collective language, a symbolism. Durkheim tried to explain the formation of symbols by the effects of major gatherings during which groups become effervescent. Penal law symbolises the solidarity, the cohesion based on the conformity of all individual consciousnesses; just as in morals, the sanction is a symbol of the feeling of obligation.
