Norbert Elias and Erving Goffman
civilised-dramaturgical bodies, social status and health inequalities
pp. 158-173
in: Fran Collyer (ed), The Palgrave handbook of social theory in health, illness and medicine, Berlin, Springer, 2015Abstract
This chapter explores the relevance of the works of Norbert Elias and Erving Goffman for understanding some connections between "mindbodies', society, health and well-being. After brief biographical sketches of Elias and Goffman, Elias' work on the civilising process is discussed along with his "psychosomatics' in which he suggests neuro-hormonal pathways between "mindbodies' and society. The increasingly internalised forms of social control, characteristic of civilised societies, are embodied in the form of what Elias called the "habitus'.
