What is sublimation?
Sublimation is a protective mechanism of the psyche that allows you to redirect the energy of negative experiences into useful activities. Sigmund Freud saw it as a person's opportunity to rise above base instincts, transforming painful emotions into energy for important and sought-after work. The scientist first outlined this concept in 1900.
The term "sublimation" is derived from the Latin word sublimatio, which literally means "ascension" or "spiritualization." In physics, this word is synonymous with the word “sublimation” and implies that the substance immediately evaporates, bypassing the liquid phase. In psychology, sublimation implies a similar process - a person realizes his experiences at a higher (elevated) level, avoiding their base manifestations.
Modern psychology considers sublimation as an important mechanism of socialization. Its manifestations are studied within the framework of creativity psychology, child and sports psychology. In everyday life, it allows you to get rid of tension, states of depression and dissatisfaction. When engaged in active activity, a person experiences pleasure and satisfaction from the feeling of the work done.
Sigmund Freud's theory of sublimation
As already mentioned, the first author of the idea of the existence of such a defense mechanism is Sigmund Freud. In his opinion, sublimation occupies an important place in human life. Freud argued that civilization arose through this defense mechanism. Many works of art were born thanks to sublimation.
A good example of the theory of sublimation is the works of Leonardo da Vinci. Due to the lack of interest in his personal life, the scientist, artist and engineer managed to create a large number of masterpieces. He considered sex and similar relationships between people to be something immoral and unworthy. According to Leonardo da Vinci, science, architecture, art are more important than earthly love.
Sigmund Freud explained his activities by the conscious sublimation of sexual energy into a scientific direction. According to the psychoanalyst, sex is “decent” only for the purpose of procreation. True pleasure can only come from the result of your own work.
After analyzing the lives of many outstanding artists, writers and poets, Freud came to the conclusion that the most striking works were created in the absence of love relationships.
The process of sublimation not only redirects energy into physical labor, but also makes it possible to realize your dreams and fantasies in the process of any activity.
Origin of the term
For a complete understanding, it is necessary to first consider the physical meaning of this concept. In physics, this is the name for the process of dry sublimation - the transformation of a substance from a solid phase into a gaseous phase. This phenomenon can be observed in iodine crystals or pieces of “dry ice” (frozen CO2 used by ice cream makers). In the open air, these substances quickly evaporate, while remaining completely dry.
Ordinary ice from water can also sublimate if placed in a vacuum. This is used in the production of instant (freeze-dried) coffee. The concentrated solution is frozen and ground into small pieces, then placed in a vacuum. All the ice evaporates, leaving porous granules.
Sigmund Freud drew a parallel between this physical phenomenon and a special mental process in which a person manages to contain strong feelings and channel this energy into a constructive channel. The scientist described this process as redirecting the energy of unacceptable desires (sexual, sadistic) to solve useful problems. He considered this a natural self-defense mechanism of our psyche and looked for ways to use it in psychotherapy.
Meaning of the word sublimation
From a scientific point of view, sublimation is when a substance passes from a solid state to a gas state, and at the same time skips the liquid stage.
Psychological sublimation is a defensive reaction of the psyche that arises due to internal tension. It redirects unspent energy to positive actions or creativity.
In chemistry
We first learn about sublimation and desublimation at school in a chemistry lesson, where we are told that it goes hand in hand with thermal phenomena and phases of matter. Later, students of technical colleges and universities encounter it. But they study this topic much deeper than we are currently interested in.
How does sublimation work?
The operating principle of sublimation is based on the conscious or unconscious redirection of mental and emotional energy in a constructive direction. This process allows you to get rid of the state of internal conflict , deriving additional benefits from it. A person copes with feelings of anger, dissatisfaction and other negative experiences by allowing emotions to spill out in the form of creative energy or physical activity.
Everyone can choose the most effective method of sublimation for themselves. For some it is creativity, for others it is playing sports, for others it is physical labor or cleaning the apartment. If something irritates you to the point of shaking your muscles, try spending the next few hours tidying up your kitchen, bathroom, or entire apartment. Time will fly by and you will feel better.
Sublimation allows people to cope with a wide variety of experiences, complexes and unacceptable desires. For example, various forms of art are often a sublimation of sexual complexes. And a person with sadistic tendencies can sublimate them by working as a surgeon and bringing benefit to people. Thus, sublimation is a natural mechanism that allows you to suppress almost any unwanted emotions. Sometimes a person finds a way to do this on his own, sometimes he needs the help of a psychotherapist.
Examples of sublimation
Now let's figure out through what activities you can sublimate.
Sport
Any physical exercise helps to throw out negative energy. There are many examples in everyday life, many famous athletes who began their careers while in some difficult life situation.
Body work helps you shift negative thoughts, find purpose, and cope with stress. The fight-or-flight response is an instinctive response under severe stress. Depression does not allow this energy to be released; global negativity stagnates within a person.
It is important to take the first step, to start doing something, even if you don’t see the point, even if you don’t have the strength . But it is very important to take this step, then the path will open on its own.
You might be interested in : The most unusual sports in the world that you didn’t know about.
Drawing
A great way to give shape to your own negative experiences. Even if a person has never drawn before, you can try to express your emotions on a piece of paper. Let it be something gloomy that sits in the soul and does not allow you to fully enjoy life. Or, on the contrary, it is something colorful and bright.
Art therapy can be absolutely anything, you can draw with a pencil, you can fill balloons with paint and throw darts at them, you can draw on water or sand. Human imagination is unlimited.
The main thing is to do something. When a person who is deeply depressed gives some form to his experiences, it definitely becomes easier.
Music
You can listen to motivational music even if you don't feel like it. You can start learning to play any instrument, write a song yourself if you already know how to play.
Mantras and meditations help you relax and switch, and the sounds of nature relax you.
Dancing
Dance therapy is the quintessence of sports and music. Physical exercise, like sports, helps relieve stress, and music relaxes and distracts.
Body movements as a way of expressing emotions have been meaningful since ancient times. For example, you can remember the ritual dances of shamans; in this way they connected their energy with the elements.
Nowadays, by dancing, a person can express any pain, throw it out into creativity, and share it with others.
Poetry or prose
You can try to write a poem, a story, a novel, an article. Talk about your experiences. You can start a blog and find like-minded people who can support you.
There are many examples in life when a small accident led to something great.
Sublimation according to Freud
Sigmund Freud viewed sublimation as a purely positive defense that allows one to transform unwanted emotions into energy and direct it to solve socially acceptable and important problems. This approach should help relieve internal stress by doing useful things.
Modern methods of psychotherapy use sublimation in a similar way, considering it an effective means of resolving the patient’s internal conflicts. However, today the concept of sublimation is interpreted much more broadly than in Freud’s concept. He saw it as a way to transform unwanted drives. Today it is considered a way to transform any unacceptable impulses and experiences.
Examples of sublimation in psychology
Now sublimation is considered much more broadly - as the transformation of certain impulses into other activities. Moreover, this does not necessarily transform sexual energy, but also any other energy. There are simple and vivid life examples:
✔️ Sadists can splash out their tendencies in surgery.
✔️ The tendency to violence is “calmed down” by working in the police.
✔️ Success in creativity, sports or art is achieved by refusing sex.
✔️ Pyromania spills out in circus activities.
✔️ The attraction to dead bodies is compensated by the profession of a pathologist.
Sublimation in psychology is the replacement of the forbidden with what is permitted in society and brings satisfaction. For example, accumulated aggression can be removed by sports activities - boxing, wrestling. Otherwise, sublimation manifests itself in too strict education. Eroticism is sublimated in friendships, sex in creativity.
How to get the most benefit from sublimation?
Sublimation can be either unconscious or completely conscious. If you learn to sublimate on purpose, this will relieve your psyche by getting rid of all (or most) negative emotions. And anyone can learn this, just follow these short instructions:
1. Relax
. Tension interferes with any constructive activity, so the first thing to do is relax.
2. Remember _
. Think of something that inspires and motivates you. You may not have a dream right now. But by thinking about it regularly, you will find something that will inspire you.
3. Meditate
. Meditation helps you focus on your inner self and better understand your own goals, aspirations and desires.
How to use
With the help of sublimation you can get rid of negative energy. Switching to creativity allows you to distract yourself and do something. Therefore, it helps fight depression and other problems.
Examples from life
When reading books or listening to music, people are hooked by certain phrases that inspire. Quotes from famous personalities help a person decide to do something.
In order to imagine what sublimation is, you need to look at a simple example: a person has a quarrel with someone, but he cannot fight. In this case, he goes to the gym.
Artist at work
To understand sublimation, examples from psychology help to see the features of the process. Some consciously try to switch, as the release helps ease the tension, or even remove it altogether. Otherwise, a person’s negative attitude will literally look like a stamp on his face.
Other meanings of the term
To finally understand what sublimation is, let's consider the meaning of this term in other areas. This will allow us to draw parallels and better understand the meaning of this concept.
In chemistry and physics
The transition of a solid directly into a gaseous state. In this case, no liquid is formed at all; the solid phase is immediately followed by a gaseous phase. This phenomenon can be observed on iodine crystals or pieces of dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide). Both substances at normal atmospheric pressure can only exist in solid and gaseous form.
In the food industry
A special method of drying food. First, they are deep frozen (to a temperature of -18 °C and below), and then placed in a vacuum. The ice evaporates, and the original product retains a significant part of its properties. Sublimation is used in the production of instant coffee, milk powder and various extracts. Meat and vegetables are also dried using this technology. This ensures a long shelf life and subsequent rapid preparation.
In printing
A special printing method that allows you to apply high-quality, moisture-resistant images to fabrics, ceramics and other surfaces.
Jung's sublimation
Carl Jung, a famous Swiss psychiatrist and follower of Freud, criticized Freud's theory of sublimation. He believed that sublimation was of esoteric origin and attributed it to mystical phenomena. Jung gave this term a completely opposite meaning, pointing out the impossibility of scientifically based proof of Freud's concept. Jung did not deny sexual implications in any type of social activity, but believed that a person transforms the energy accumulated from sexual dissatisfaction not intentionally and forcibly, but unconsciously, and this requires alchemical transformations - fire and Primordial Matter.
Sublimation and cultural embodiments of energy
Freud was unable to implement the technology for implementing the theory of sublimation itself.
He deepened into his psychoanalysis and everything that saving sexual energy leads to. Until now, independent scientists cannot figure out how, according to Freud, sexual energy is transformed due to the movement of emotions of a creative orientation and, in fact, into certain prerogatives. Freud was sure: every self-respecting person, even those not creatively gifted, engages in sublimation at least once in their life.
We are always overwhelmed with the desire to do something, not to mention the spring transformation and revival of thoughts in April-May. At such times, artists and scientists begin to create more intensely. The most advanced ideas and masterpieces of artistic excellence are created.
All this is the sublimation of unclaimed sexual energy, which was embodied in more productive matter. Another equally important process of sublimation is dreams. When a person expresses himself in this way, the results of his activities are more productive and visual than when a person does not transform the remaining energy to one degree or another.
Have you seen a beautiful, bright, colorful dream? This can already be considered a creative embodiment of your thoughts and reflections. According to Freud, such qualities are irreplaceable and commensurate only with great discoveries. As a result, the result of sublimations is any creative work.
In practice, including contemporaries, in order to create truly advanced works of a cultural or scientific nature, it is worth giving up sex. However, Freud's theory in this regard is not always confirmed, since an artist or thinker, sexually satisfied, begins to create in a new way, using advanced approaches and practices.
Love is the energy of life. Robert Browning
Books about sublimation
If the topic of “replacing actions” appeals to you, I recommend reading books that are directly related to the topic of sublimation:
- Of course, the first book is Sigmund Freud’s “Psychology of Sublimation according to Freud in Examples.” There the topic of replacement, which concerns the sexual sphere of a person’s life, is clearly revealed. Although, from the book you can also glean information applicable to other areas of our lives;
- Vanya Kirpichikov "The Abyss". An entertaining plot, the theme of sublimation in the practical life of the main character is revealed in detail. You can also read another work by this author, “The Black Triangle”;
- "The Story of a Celibate" by Elizabeth Abbott. An interesting presentation of material about abstinence and celibacy.
If you are interested in the topic, be sure to read these works! This will help you develop your own sublimation instructions.
Description of the concept of sublimation
One thing was clear to Freud: each individual periodically experiences deviations of various kinds of drives, including sexual ones, from their original aspirations.
Moreover, such energy is quickly redirected into the creative path and is perfectly realized. Initially, the ideas of sublimation were expressed by Friedrich Nietzsche, but Freud developed this theory in his own way, turning it into the ideas of psychoanalysis. Redirection can be carried out not only in the creative flow of thought and action, but also in a socially acceptable way: volunteering, constructivism, altruism. This “defense” was assessed by Freud as a very positive aspect of the individual’s activity.
Sublimation is, in any case, a release of internal tension. Modern psychologists and psychiatrists have learned to characterize this term positively. Sublimation, in their opinion, is nothing more than a constructive and very productive activity, aimed only at achieving a positive and desired result, the spiritual balance of a full-fledged person.
The Adorno effect or why it is useful to sublimate
The famous philosopher, musicologist and sociologist Theodor Adorno, studying the topic of sublimation, stipulated in his works that the replacement of activity is very beneficial for human health. The conclusion suggested itself. For example, a person who in everyday life is a true opponent of any violence and harshness, when choosing a channel on TV, will choose a program with forbidden content.
Or another option: a person suffering from sexual inhibition or a prude will secretly watch 18+ videos, releasing accumulated energy. It is also interesting that people with increased anxiety prefer to watch films in the horror/thriller genre.
Why is watching or focusing on taboo topics good for a person? By watching taboo scenes, a person releases all his feelings and emotions, satisfying his hidden needs. Not everyone can and wants to share their innermost desires, but it is necessary to let off “steam”. In this case, sublimation is the best method of avoiding constant reflection, cleansing the psyche of emotional stress, according to Adorno.
By sublimating, you become calmer and freer from unnecessary thoughts
Sublimation: Examples from life
The person received negative emotions as a result of being unfairly offended.
He does not use physical force against the motivator, but simply goes to the gym and trains hard. Another option is for a person who is comprehensively educated and does not want to take it out on the offender, simply paints a masterpiece in the form of an oil or watercolor painting. Such examples are everywhere. This is especially obvious when the role of a sublimator is a creative person who is able to “unload” through cultural expression.
Many psychotherapists and psychiatrists say that sex gives a feeling of happiness and new positive emotions. If they are thrown away and there is nowhere else to get them, where then can you get the energy for creative ideas, drawings or melodies? It is in this context that sublimation is the expression of something natural, creative, extremely beautiful and real.
Otherwise, sublimation is nothing more than the transformation of crazy energy accumulated over several months into real events. For example, a person has not had sex for a long time, and he has accumulated quite a lot of unrealized units of energy. He goes to a bar and gets drunk. But this does not allow him to fully realize his ideas and intellectual views. Then he just draws or dances.
The energy lost during such incarnations is used only for good. But it would be better if it were sex, say advanced psychologists. However, everything here is up to the judgment of the respondents themselves.
