Today, diversity of gender and sexuality is beginning to be recognized and celebrated, even while many religious denominations still resist these cultural changes. The Gift of Sublimation offers pastoral interpretations of these social shifts in thelight of psychological principles, and argues that there is, historically, not only one view of masculinity but multiple conceptions. This discussion covers topics as diverse as the moral disapproval of masturbation; the efforts of some churches to convince homosexual men to adopt a heterosexual orientation; the dynamics of male envy of female longevity; the homosexual tendencies of King James I of England and VI of Scotland; and biblical portraits of God's body, gender, and sexuality. Nathan Carlin and Donald Capps make special use of the psychoanalytic concept of sublimation: the redirection of sexual desires that are considered unacceptable or unworthy towards interests and aspirations that are considered acceptable and worthy. While the use of psychoanalytic hermeneutics here is likely to raise various red flags for potential religious readers, especially for those who have been informed that Sigmund Freud was hostile towards religion, this book presents a rather different view, focussing on religious sublimation.

There is not, and never was, a monolithic masculinity; there are, and always have been, multiple masculinities. Today diversity with regard to gender and sexuality is beginning to be recognized and celebrated even while many religious denominations still resist these cultural changes. This book offers pastoral interpretations of these social shifts in light of psychological principles, applying them to topics such as the moral disapproval of masturbation; the efforts of some churches to convince homosexual men to adopt a heterosexual orientation; the dynamics of male envy of female longevity; the homosexual tendencies of King James of England and Scotland; and biblical portraits of God's body, gender, and sexuality. The authors make a special use of the psychoanalytic concept of sublimation--that is, the redirection of sexual desires that are considered unacceptable or unworthy toward interests and aspirations that are considered acceptable and worthy. While the use of psychoanalytic hermeneutics here is likely to raise various red flags for potential religious readers (especially for those who have been informed that Sigmund Freud was hostile toward religion), this book presents a rather different Freud by focusing on religious sublimation.

In psychoanalytic theory, sublimation--the process of expressing instinctual impulses in constructive, socially acceptable forms--is a central, yet poorly understood psychic process. The eminent psychoanalyst Hans W. Loewald here offers a provocative new examination of sublimation. After reviewing the writings of Freud, Fenichel, Hartmann, Winnicott, and Kris on sublimation, Dr. Loewald presents his own ideas. In his attempt to disentangle sublimation from other concepts with which it is often confused, he examines it within three contexts: as reconciliation, as defense, and as symbolic expression. He establishes a strong case for the undifferentiated quality of early life--a time of unselfconscious unity prior to awareness of self or other. Sublimation, according to Dr. Loewald, is an act of instinctual expression derived from this early pre-differentiated period. Dr. Loewald's inquiry leads to a reexamination and revision of basic psychoanalytic theory relating to instincts, symbolism, motivation, ego development, and various emotional processes. "This is a new and highly thought-provoking approach to an understanding of the phenomena of sublimation."--A. Scott Dowling, M.D., Case Western Reserve University "This book is not only a profound consideration of the nature of sublimation--a subject of excruciating importance for humans--it is a summarizing statement encompassing the whole work of a great psychoanalyst."--Vann Spruiell, M.D., Tulane University

According to Freud's later works, we do not really feel well or free within civilization. Our discontent never disappears, and we shall never become completely reliable members of society. Alcohol already suffices, Freud tells us, to ruin the fragile architecture of sublimations. Since 'Beyond the Pleasure Principle,' sublimation seems to be nothing more than a euphemism for suppressing the drives. We sublimate because we did not get or were not allowed to have what we 'actually' wanted. Is sublimation a mere surrogate or perhaps even the name psychoanalysis found for 'theoria' in the twentieth century? With Freud as its pivot, Goebel provides an intellectual history of sublimation, which also serves as an introduction to other key ideas associated with the authors discussed, such as Schopenhauer's philosophy of music, the will to power in Nietzsche, the structure of Freudian psychoanalysis, Adorno's concept of modern art, or Lacanian ethics. In examining both its prehistory and reception, Goebel argues that sublimation can be reconsidered as the road toward an individual and social life beyond discontent.

This book contains a overview of the sublimation process, the products available, sources, business aspects of a sublimation business and is intended to serve as a reference manual for anyone working with sublimation.

"...[T]he tradition this young poet most significantly keeps alive in them is the great poetic tradition of wit as serious means. In such writing, wit -- as the old expression has it -- cuts to the quick." (Robert Pinsky for The Washington Post) "Sublimation Point is like a perfect pop song, making the listener glad to be alive. Jason Schneiderman doesn't strive for complication: he wins us over with rueful plain-speaking. He has Anne Sexton's directness, Max Jacob's eye for incongruity. Tragedy enters the picture, and becomes the frame: nowhere do these poems forget their nemesis, mortality." (Wayne Koestenbaum) "Grave, sweetly questioning, often irreverently funny, Jason Schneiderman's poems about love and death, the Holocaust and family history, self knowledge and self deception give this book a range and tonal variety that is extremely rare for any poet, let alone a first book: Schneiderman has imagined his work broadly, and executed it with great skill, passion, and intelligence." (Tom Sleigh)

Normal red-blooded Americans prefer tennis to sex-and Sigmund Freud always knew it. the famous doctor surpressed his findings because of a morbid fear of white shorts, but now his secret papers have been discovered. Complete with case studies, photographs, personal correspondence, and seminal doodles, Sex as a Sublimation for Tennis explains the conclusions Freud hid and reveals man's true basic drive: getting a court in prime time. 43,000 copies in print.