Freud on Sublimation

Volney P. Gay is Professor of Religion, Professor of Psychiatry, and Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University, and a Training and Supervising Analyst at the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute. His previous book, Freud on Sublimation: Reconsiderations, published by SUNY Press, won the Heinz Hartmann Award from the New York Psychoanalytic Institute.

"One of the most common criticisms of Freud is that his theory cannot satisfactorily account for religion or artistic creativity. Gay's revision of Freud's theory using Gibson's theory of perception allows the Freudian concept of sublimation to function in a positive way that squares with artistic creativity, religion, and common experience. Gay has made a significant contribution to psychoanalytic theory and to the understanding of human creativity.""I found this book very interesting to read. It synthesizes and discusses an amazing range of evidence from the philosophy of Kant to the physiology of perception of Helmholtz, the linguistic theory of Lacan and Ricoeur, art history, religion, etc., all applied to Freud's theory of sublimation. It is clearly the work of a mature scholar."— Harold Coward, University of Calgary"Dr. Gay's book brings together fruitfully several lines of argumentation: aesthetic theory, hermeneutics, psychoanalytical practice and criticism, and good sense. It ought to fill an important gap in the relevant literatures, but particularly in expanding our purview of Freud on sublimation and our ongoing project of determining an adequate contemporary aesthetics. The value of Gay's work is that it relates these two issues in ways that are mutually illuminating. I would have expected such a contribution from the author, whose previous books have been solid contributions. The scholarship is sound: it is in fact superlative, with a wide range of materials cited carefully." — William G. Doty, The University of Alabama"This is really a very fine book. Philosophers, psychoanalysts, students of the arts, and religious studies scholars will all find something of interest. I know of no study that re-works Freud on sublimation and art so thoroughly and makes such a commanding use of Heinz Kohut's psychoanalytic theories of the self to this end." — Don Browning, University of Chicago

• Acknowledgments Introduction Art and Public MoralityAn Ordered and Safeguarded UniverseFreud and the Problem of Sublimation 1. Art and the Organization of the Self Similarities and Differences: Symptoms and Work of ArtPsychoanalysis and Psychic PainFreud's Solution: Recollecting Libido TheoryThe Argument in Brief: Art and Self-Organization 2. Freud and the Location of Values The Location of Values and AestheticsSublimation and AestheticsThe Official Theory of Perception 3. Sublimation and the Mystery of Transformation Dualism and Antinomies in Freud's ThoughtThe Problem of Quality Returns: Infantile Sexual AimsSublimation and the Transformation of Energy 4. Origins of Complex Behavior and Sublimation Complex Behavior and EvolutionThe Structure of Objects, The Structure of RepresentationsResponding to Art: Iconic RepresentationsSelf-Understanding and Self-Represenations: Emotional Struggles, Logical Quandaries 5. Perception and Emotion in Classical Theory and Contemporary Authors Theories of PerceptionHelmholtz and the Physiology of PerceptionPerceptions, Qualities, and AffordancesContemporary Authors and The Theory of Affordances: Weiss, Langs, Stern 6. From Visual Affordances to Emotional Affordances Anal Qualities, Anal Character, SublimationVisual Affordances as a Model of Emotional AffordancesEmotional Affordances and the DrivesFrom Aesthetics to SublimationEmotional Affordances vs. Representations: The Structure of the Inner WorldVivual Affordances, Empathy and Art 7. Emotional Affordances and Their Representations Introduction: Invisible Losses, Visible RepairsAstonishment in John CheeverEmotional Affordances in a Japanese NovelThe Smelly Father in HamletSublimation and Perversions in Citizen KaneConclusion Notes Bibliography Index