Elias traces long-
term shifts in the structure and character of the emotional lives of specific groups of
people, notably members of the secular upper classes, with a focus in particular on
transitions from the late Middle Ages to the Early Modern period. From this ana-
48
C. Wouters, ‚The sociology of emotions and flight attendants: Hochschild’s Managed Heart,‛
Theory Culture & Society, 6 (1) (1989).
49
N. Elias, ‚On human beings and their emotions: a process sociological essay,‛ Theory Culture &
Society, 4 (1987), 356.
50
N. Elias, What is Sociology? (London: Hutchinson, 1978), 119. [Translated from the original
German publication in 1970].
Foucault Studies, No. 8, pp. 28-52
42
lysis, he elucidates a shift involving an advancing threshold of shame and repugnance in
relation to bodily functions, both of the self and of others, and an increasing social
restraint towards self-restraint. If we were to contrast, say, the table manners of people
eating together in the manner customary of the Middle Ages, we might observe
behaviours that to present day sensibilities would be regarded as distasteful, vulgar,
perhaps embarrassing — eating from a common dish, with unwashed hands, bel-
ching and farting at the table, etc. In this previous era, people’s emotions were
conditioned in a different way. What had not yet been developed to the extent that
it is now — and what may be at play in our reactions to their behaviours — is an
‚invisible wall of affects‛ that seemingly rises at the approach of something that has
entered the mouth of another person, at the sight or even mention of certain bodily
functions, or as a feeling of shame or embarrassment when our own functions are
exposed to others.51
This ‚invisible wall‛ that seems to interject itself between one body and another,
repelling and separating, is central to the self-experience of Homo clausus. Put simp-
ly, the conception of a split between the private and public domains of life is itself
something that develops over time (both biographically and historically). Thus, gro-
wing demands for emotion management cannot simply be reduced to the actions of
capitalist enterprises; these are rooted in much broader and longer-term processes of
social change. Even from the few examples provided above — and Elias provides
many more — we can also observe how seemingly private, individual, and personal
experiences of ourselves, plus our feelings and approaches toward others, are part of
our historically emergent social habitus. One can also observe how the search for
authenticity may in turn be related to the connected experience of a deeply hidden
true, essential me and the longing to uncover it.
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