Sublimation and Greek mythology

Sublimation is an important element of ancient Greek mythology and philosophy, as it expresses the concept of change and transformation between different beings. In tales and artistic creation, this theme is often portrayed as a way of freeing oneself from one’s usual state, turning it into a god or another being who has different possibilities of experiencing it. This concept is often expressed through myths and stories, where characters often transform into various animals or objects. Transubstantiation can represent change and evolution, but it can also indicate destruction and change imposed by forces outside the control of character.

Sublimation and Nikos Kazantzakis

N. Kazantzakis uses the term Sublimation a lot in his life and work. The ability to transmute, is pursued in his life and mentioned it as a purpose in his work. While in Vienna, where Freud, Jung, Adler, Stekel and others were active, he became involved in psychoanalysis that influenced his life and work and got the impetus to find denatured, socially acclaimed paths through his artistic activity and intellectual pursuits. Kazantzakis in his practice, consciously or unconsciously, managed to prove how sublimation takes place. Throughout the period of his life and in his work, he gives us various versions of sublimation. During this period, sublimation is influenced by Freudian theory and is focused on artistic activity and intellectual pursuits, without of course excluding religious elements.

Sublimation in the work of Vincent van Gogh during his nursing

The painter suffered from mental illness and in the clinic where he was hospitalized he painted “Starry Night” and many of his self-portraits. He voluntarily requested his confinement in the hospital of Saint-Paul de Mozol on May 8, 1889. Saint-Paul de Mosol was housed in an old monastery, and that spring the number of people hospitalized was small. So, Van Gogh was given two additional rooms and used them as an informal painting workshop.

During this time, he created some of the best-known works of his career. Starry Night was painted on June 18, 1889, and is the only nocturnal work in the series of paintings with the view from his bedroom window in the hospital. In early June, Vincent wrote to his brother Theo that This morning I saw the landscape from my window for a long time before sunrise and a morning star, which seemed very large. The brightest “star” in the painting, on the right side of the viewer, is Venus. I suppose the hospitalization, treatment and psychiatric support offered to Van Gogh at the end of the 19th century are hardly comparable to the choices of the 21st century. I cannot comment on their mechanism and therapeutic effect. Also, I have little interest in the accurate diagnosis of the disease from which the famous, posthumous, painter suffered. I admire his talent, his devotion to art, his strong defense of transubstantiation – as defined by Freud as a refined expression of impulses and emotions in creative and socially acceptable ways. On the one hand it encourages a behavior that benefits and on the other hand it releases emotional energy. Perhaps, after all, this defense of the beloved painter was more comforting and effective than hospitalization. Perhaps, in part, it contributed to the fact that Van Gogh was imprinted on our collective consciousness not as a psychiatric patient but as a great artist.

Sublimation: Negative thoughts expressed in a positive way

According to psychoanalytic theory, the individual is called upon throughout his life to calm the conflicts created by his instincts, desires and fears. And how does it do that? Automatically and unconsciously activating “defense mechanisms”. And while most of them are intended to prevent the release of energy – which entails stress – so that an inner impulse does not become apparent, there is a mechanism that instead channels this energy into something not only acceptable but beneficial to our culture and to the person experiencing it. This mechanism is none other than “Sublimation”. In Sublimation, the individual transforms his aggressive instincts into something fully creative. An artist, for example, transforms a personal longing into a work of art, and the latter becomes an object of admiration by others. A surgeon, on the other hand, takes care to use his inner instincts in an idealized and acceptable way for the benefit of his patients. Being a psychiatrist, in tandem, can involve a person’s deep desire to know firsthand the very intimate moments of others. A person in love who cannot express his love for a forbidden person because of the

ego -of society- may be led to write a poem, a hymn to his love, with great resonance. All these examples converge on the fact that this defense mechanism – without which one could lead to intense psychopathology – does not waste the energy of the mind but instead transforms it into something particularly creative, which has beneficial effects both for the individual as a unit and for society as a whole. Doing so is like putting on the mantle of the positive and the pleasant. So, instead of repelling, he welcomes his negative emotions and transforms them by giving them another substance, without, of course, this action having a bad impact on his mental health and others. With this mechanism, everything that torments and limits us acquires another dimension and instead of restricting us, they come to liberate us. In closing, we would say that Sublimation is a very useful strategy of our unconscious mind that aims not only to protect us from guilt for unacceptable desires but also to push us to cultivate them and turn them into a more useful channel, investing in emotions, creativity, and art. After all, for Freud, “art is a way out of the sexual problem.” How do you transmute and thus express your deepest instincts?