Concept

Sublimation (psychology)

Overview

In psychology, sublimation is a mature type of defense mechanism, in which socially unacceptable impulses or idealizations are transformed into socially acceptable actions or behavior, possibly resulting in a long-term conversion of the initial impulse.

Sigmund Freud believed that sublimation was a sign of maturity and civilization, allowing people to function normally in culturally acceptable ways. He defined sublimation as the process of deflecting sexual instincts into acts of higher social valuation, being "an especially conspicuous feature of cultural development; it is what makes it possible for higher psychical activities, scientific, artistic or ideological, to play such an 'important' part in civilized life."

Psychology textbooks present a similar view, stating that sublimation is "translating a distressing desire into an acceptable form." It occurs when displacement involves "the transformation of sexual or aggressive energies into culturally acceptable, even admirable, behaviors," and "serves a higher cultural or socially useful purpose, as in the creation of art or inventions".

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where Sublimation (psychology) is discussed.

This process is called "sublimation," and in adopting this process we subscribe to the general standard which places social aims above selfish sexual desires. Sublimation is, as a matter of fact, only a special case of the relation of sexual to non-sexual desires. We shall have occasion to talk more about this later in another connection.
Sigmund Freud, A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
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If one were to yield to a first impression, one would be tempted to say that sublimation is a fate which has been forced upon instincts by culture alone. But it is better to reflect over this a while longer.
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its discontents
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Every mature art possesses a host of conventions as a basis: in so far as it is a language. Convention is a condition of great art, _not_ an obstacle to it.... Every elevation of life likewise elevates the power of communication, as also the understanding of man. _The power of living in other people's souls_ originally had nothing to do with morality, but with a physiological irritability of suggestion: "sympathy,"…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Will to Power
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Actuated by this feeling a man gives of himself to things, _he forces_ them to partake of his riches, he does violence to them—this proceeding is called _idealising._ Let us rid ourselves of a prejudice here: idealising does not consist, as is generally believed, in a suppression or an elimination of detail or of unessential features. A stupendous _accentuation_ of the principal characteristics is by far the most…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Twilight of the Idols
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Our explanation of the sublime applies also to the ethical, to what is called the sublime character. Such a character arises from this, that the will is not excited by objects which are well calculated to excite it, but that knowledge retains the upper hand in their presence.
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
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Sublimation (psychology)

Overview

In the original texts

Philosophers who discussed Sublimation (psychology)

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