Overview

This book explores and revisits the concept of sublimation, in its various aspects and implications that it has in theory and clinical psychoanalysis, and also in its broader socio-cultural aspects. The basic assumption that aroused the author's interest in the topic is a certain surprise in observing how sublimation in psychoanalysis is in general spoken about less in contemporary discourse: so is it an outdated concept, an endangered species? Does it belong to the archaeology of psychotherapy? Or, on the contrary, is it so much a part of analytical practice and so well established and implicit in theory that it is not necessary to discuss it any more? It is the prevailing opinion of the author that sublimation is nowadays expressed differently and has undergone a sort of anthropological mutation, as has happened to several Freudian concepts with the changing historical and cultural contexts.

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9780367102135

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Does the human race 'sublimate less'? Or does psychoanalysis today use the concept of sublimation in theory, clinical practice, and technique with less interest? In this extraordinary work, one of the most perceptive and stimulating that I have read in recent years, a dedicated psychoanalyst explores the evolution of a concept that reveals an implicit and powerful connection with contemporary ways of being. Culture, lifestyles, personality traits, educational models, therapeutic paths, the aesthetic dimension, and social contracts are all looked at in the light of the vicissitudes of sublimation: proof yet again that the psychoanalytical perspective, if it is rigorous and in-depth, is able to contribute to the interpretation of a more complex reality, as well as to the continuing development of its own theoretical and clinical cornerstones. --Stefano Bolognini, President Freud had planned in 1915 to write an essay on sublimation in his Papers on Metapsychology. This shows how, for Freud, sublimation was a fundamental concept of metapsychology. In this book, Rossella Valdr encourages us to once again pick up the various threads of sublimation, according it the same essential value. Valdr examines the vicissitudes of the concept, marked from the beginning by periods of alternate championing and fading from sight, and she offers us a fascinating study on the theories that may today seal the fate of sublimation. --Evelyne Sechaud, former President

Does the human race 'sublimate less'? Or does psychoanalysis today use the concept of sublimation in theory, clinical practice, and technique with less interest? In this extraordinary work, one of the most perceptive and stimulating that I have read in recent years, a dedicated psychoanalyst explores the evolution of a concept that reveals an implicit and powerful connection with contemporary ways of being. Culture, lifestyles, personality traits, educational models, therapeutic paths, the aesthetic dimension, and social contracts are all looked at in the light of the vicissitudes of sublimation: proof yet again that the psychoanalytical perspective, if it is rigorous and in-depth, is able to contribute to the interpretation of a more complex reality, as well as to the continuing development of its own theoretical and clinical cornerstones. --Stefano Bolognini, President Freud had planned in 1915 to write an essay on sublimation in his Papers on Metapsychology. This shows how, for Freud, sublimation was a fundamental concept of metapsychology. In this book, Rossella Valdre encourages us to once again pick up the various threads of sublimation, according it the same essential value. Valdre examines the vicissitudes of the concept, marked from the beginning by periods of alternate championing and fading from sight, and she offers us a fascinating study on the theories that may today seal the fate of sublimation. --Evelyne Sechaud, former President

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Rossella Valdre

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