ABSTRACT
The model of a transformation movement towards an ever higher degree of mentalization does not apply only to psychical growth in human beings—it concerns the evolution of the treatment and of civilisation, and the development of psychoanalysis. Freud constantly emphasised the fact that the capacity for sublimation varies greatly from one individual to another and depends on several factors: The original strength of the sexual instinct probably varies in each individual; certainly the proportion of it which is suitable for sublimation varies. In addition, detachment and renunciation do not lead to an absence of affects or representations—they go hand-in-hand with an intensification of drive-related impulses, both narcissistic and object-related, and an increase in word-presentations and thing-presentations: Kulturarbeit and Kulturversagung! A typical feature of any session of analysis is the mental activity that is occurring in the presence of, and with, the other person, the word "with" often implying a temporary obliteration of the frontiers of each one's sense of identity.
