ABSTRACT
In this first chapter, we take up the idea of Norbert Elias presented in his book The Court Society as an investigation of French court society of the Ancien Régime as a specific type of figuration whose interdependent relations among its members established unstable balances of power in a constant competition for status and prestige, shaping the architecture of the palaces, the nobles’ quarters and dwellings, and using etiquette and ceremonials as instruments to control individuals’ behaviours, emotions, and affections. The relevance of this chapter is to understand how fundamental elements of the structuring of individual personalities were constructed, as Freud presented them in the course of his works, with regard to the ego’s need for love, prestige and protection in relation to the psychic instances and individuals who are part of his life. The relationship between individuals, among themselves and with the society or groups they belong to is marked by elements that can be identified within the process of the formation of court societies. Thus, there remain in the psychic structures, in an unconscious way and manifested as symptoms, ways of formation of the old social structures, especially originated in the European court configurations. Themes such as psychological helplessness, the demand for love, prestige and protection, as well as social anxiety, are elements that are present both in the genesis of social structures and in the genesis of psychic structures. This chapter discusses works such as The Court Society, by Norbert Elias with Civilization and its Discontents, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, Inhibition, Symptom and Anxiety of Sigmund Freud.
