On sublimation: the indirect destiny of the drive. Revisiting a founding concept in theory, clinic, art and civilization

The work presents an ample revision of the Freudian concept of sublimation, tracing its history in Freud’s thought, in post-Freudian evolution, theoretical controversies, and its widespread impact on art, civilization, and the clinic. Author of a book on sublimation in 2014, the author wonders if we are facing the disappearance of sublimation, apparently less common in contemporary debate In reality, disguised in different theorizations, it has continued to operate both in the clinic and in the community. Freud did not devote a specific essay to the subject, so the concept is obtained from all his thoughts, however Leo-nardo da Vinci is considered to be the work where it is best theorized. Although Freud placed sublimation as a result of an analytical pathway and as a necessity for the survival of humankind and civilization, in clinical writings he showed little optimism, given the difficulty that humans have towards drive renunciation. Sublimation means a different drive destiny, a change of aim, which instead of heading for the sexual object, moves to other objects, no longer sexual, but equally capable of giving pleasure. Investments sublimated at the aim include friendship, work, art, thought, up to the foundation of Culture. Thanks to the flexibility of drives, humankind, unlike animals in which instincts are rigid, can change the objects of desire, replace them with more appropriate ones, and thus embark on the truly human process of symbolization. Sublimation implies a re-nunciation of the object, and this makes it a process that is not easy for many individuals. Post Freud, sublimation was replaced with "reparation", or moved to the potential area, but on leaving metapsychology one can no longer strictly speak of sublimation, even though the prac-tical outcome may resemble it. The mysterious ways of art, the com-plex relationship with the death drive, and the role of contemporaneity are discussed.

Keywords: sublimation, art, civilization, symbolization, death drive.

• Recensione di ‘Sulla sublimazione. Un percorso del destino del desiderio nella teoria e nella cura’ Luigi Antonello Armando, in Ricerca Psicoanalitica /2024
  DOI: 10.4081/rp.2024.891

Rossella Valdrè, Sulla sublimazione: il destino indiretto della pulsione. Rivisitazione di un concetto fondante nella teoria, la clinica, l’arte e la Civiltà in "PSICOTERAPIA PSICOANALITICA" 2/2022, pp 59-87, DOI: 10.3280/PSP2022-002004