Sublimation is defined not as redirecting sexual energy to a different object as is usually thought, but rather as changing the nature of that object and raising that object to the dignity of a thing. The sublime quality of an object is thus not due to any intrinsic property of the object itself, but simply an effect of the object's position in the symbolic structure of fantasy.
Sublimation is best understood along the lines of kantian beauty, a free play of imagination and understanding in a purposiveness without purpose or a finality without end.
Sublimation is the maintenance of control as a response to abjection a loss of the distinction between subject and object.
Sublimation is the process whereby forces (such as revenge, sex, cruelty) have no outlet themselves and must be supplied an outlet by another weaker force (resentment, love, tragic pity).
Sublimation is the redirecting of excess sexual energy toward non-sexual, socially acceptable artistic creation and intellectual work.
Sublimation is a defense mechanism whereby one satisfies an impulse with a socially acceptable substitute object.
Sublimation is an act in art, thinking, and spirituality that depends on a paradoxical obedience to oneself. If one is unable to command, one will be a slave, but if one is unable to obey, one will be a mindless barbarian.
Sublimation is the diversion of a drive or a passion so as to discharge itself in an apparently different way.