History of the concept of sublimation, from Freud to the present day: a brief literary review

The term “sublimation” begins to be used in the seventeenth century, but still with a purely chemical significance: sublimation is the passage, the transformation or conversion that substances undergo when passing from one state to another, for example from a solid substance to gas. In Chaucer’s tales the figure of the medieval alchemist tries to transform vulgar objects into gold, but it may be said that it is with the great romantic literature that sublimation, even if not specifically named, acquires its more subtle and refined modern meaning. In his in-depth study on sublimation, Loewald points out that the two terms are not merely distant from each other but actually opposite: conversion is associated with a negative value, in passing from something higher to something lower, which is the somatic symptom. “Sublimation is successful because it involves the channelling of instinctual energy into social acceptable endeavours without blocking the discharge of this energy”.