This article’s aim is to analyze the Freudian formulations regarding the relationship between the subject, occupied with finding possibilities of libidinous satisfaction, and the advance of civilization. We consider that a difference can be established between two Freudian conceptions 1) an opposition between sexuality and collectivity; 2) civilization as a libidinous bond. The first one is found in the text "Civilized sexual morality and modern nervousness" (1908), and the second in the text of 1930, "Civilization and its discontents". Regarding the conception of civilization, we relate ideas of Freud and Norbert Elias, since we consider that the concept of civilization in Freud refers to the modern experience of social bond. Therefore, it is a form of sociability based on self-regulation.
sexuality; civilization; self-regulation; Freud; Norbert Elias