sublimation

is a defense mechanism whereby one satisfies an impulse with a socially acceptable substitute object.

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.

Nietzsche clarifies the importance of sublimation in his suggestion that refinements in art, thinking, and spirituality depend upon a kind of obedience. If one is unable to command, one will be a slave, but if one is unable to obey, one will be a mindless barbarian. True artist submit themselves to all kinds of rigorous laws in order to discipline themselves and their art. Obedience and sublimation go hand in hand... the obedience of artist teaches them to sublimate their will to power so that their feeling of power reaches a climax in the act of creation. Most of us lack the talent and the discipline for truly great art, but for those who can create, what greater feeling of power is there than to know that one is the source of something truly beautiful'(sparknotes nietzsche beyond).

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.

Actually, what Freud calls sublimation can be better understood along the lines of Kantian beauty, which consist in a free play of imagination and understanding in a purposiveness without purpose or a finality without end.

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.

'it raises an object. . . to the dignity of the Thing' (S7, 112). . . . In other words, sublimation does not involve directing the drive to a different object, but rather changing the nature of the object to which theA-Z 201drive was already directed, a 'change of object in itself, something which is made possible because the drive is 'already deeply marked by the articulation of the signifier' (S7, 293). 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. (evans 1999: 200-1)

is the diversion of a drive or a passion so as to discharge itself in an apparently different way.

N uses the concept to mean a drive or passion that has been diverted, so as to discharge itself in an apparently different way. For example, the herd's instincts for revenge are sublimated into virtues. In principle this could happen consciously or deliberately (D202), but more often is surreptitious. That is, it appears as if the original drive simply disappears (H1.1), or that its new object always was its true object (e.g. 'good actions are sublimated evil ones': H1.107... sex is sublimated into love: BGE180... cruelty into tragic pity: GM2.7... or the ascetic priest changing the direction of ressentiment' at GM3.15). N explains sublimation, at least in part, by pointing out that not all 'drives' or 'forces' have a direction or meaning that is have a 'natural' outlet and thus another, much weaker force, can be the one to supply that direction (GS360). Freud obtains the idea from N and it becomes a key concept within psychoanalysis.' (Burnham 317)

is the maintenance of control as a response to abjection a loss of the distinction between subject and object.

nothing else than the possibility of naming the pre-nominal, the pre-objectal, which are in fact only a trans-nominal, a ransobectal' (11) (If abjection describes an experience, or a symptom, sublimation names one 'healthy' response to it: 'In the symptom, the abject permeates me. I become abject. Through sublimation, I keep it under control'

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).

is the redirecting of excess sexual energy toward non-sexual, socially acceptable artistic creation and intellectual work.

sublimation, n.Definitions

sublimation