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Presented as an alternative to holistic and atomistic options, social network analysis develops a methodology of structural analysis of social relationships using different measuring indexes and representing techniques. In this framework, the task of reconstructing the old genealogy of this paradigm has privileged theoretical references considered as the most suited for the operating mobilisation of network as a measuring instrument, thus neglecting aspects and developments with which this notion was associated in some selected authors, and rejecting other sociologists who yet place it at the core of their reflection. The present article focuses on examining the psycho-sociological foundation of network analysis, using the respective contributions of Tarde, Simmel and Elias, and the new conception of individualisation which it conveys in the theoretical framework of historical evolution of societies.