In 1939, at the beginning of World War II, the German sociologist Norbert Elias published his most important work, The process of civilizationA meticulously documented analysis of Western affectivity from the Middle Ages to Modernity, presented as a journey of gradual privatization of affections, increasingly confined to the interiority of the self, and of publicizing everything that is rational in people, considered as the only thing worthy of being shown.