Secret of Sublimation (Part 1)

Psychoanalytic concepts

Abstract

Sublimation is one of the four destinies of drives (according to Z. Freud) and a process of transforming libido and redirecting it to a new, not sexual, but socially acceptable, socially significant goal. In this case, sublimation also functions as psychological defense. Z. Freud described sublimation at first in the context of adjoining partial instincts (drives), and then – in the context of narcissistic issues (Leonardo’s "case"). Z. Freud leaves space for further research into the transformation of libido, noting that one day psychoanalysis will be able to explain the process as thoroughly as repression. Meanwhile a special predisposition to artistic creativity, a passion for scientific research and a productive pursuit of high ethical ends remains a mystery with a bit of paradox: clarity of mental mechanics and economy of sublimation combined with totally vague causes and goals. Not pretending to answer all the questions, we try to find the "root system" of sublimation not as a term, but as a "fluid" wandering from one environment to another and hiding in multiple fields of human knowledge and experience. Maybe a mystery itself is a core feature of sublimation, like a dream needs a "navel" (center)? In the first part of the article, we talk about the genesis of sublimation concept in psychoanalysis and about its forms in different environments: mythological, philosophical, cultural. Thus, we will trace the volatile phylogenetic lineage – background of sublimation as a mental phenomenon.