War, hope and fear: Writings on violence at the end of a long life

Abstract

The concept of violence plays a very important role in Elias’s oeuvre, permeating most of his books and texts. Nevertheless, it is not discussed in a definitive way in any of his texts, thus opening the door to many interpretations, debates and controversies. The Civilizing Process and The Germans are the most quoted of his books when violence is under discussion. The aim of this chapter is very simple: to connect the discussion from The Civilizing Process to texts that Elias wrote later in his career, in the 1980s, especially Humana Conditio. A discussion of Freud’s influence on Elias helps to discuss Elias’s understanding of violence at the individual level.