Ethics and Sublimation Antoine Vergote

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Ethics and Sublimation Antoine Vergote — K.U. Leuven

In this paper I will alternate between the position Ethics in sublimation, sublimation in ethics of a psychoanalyst who reflects on psychoanalysis as a moral philosopher, and that of a psychoana- The Vocabulary of Psychoanalysis, by Laplanche lyst who views moral concepts from an analyst’s and Pontalis, gives the following definition of point of view. By psychoanalysis I mean the ‘sublimation’: the process postulated by Freud to clinical practice and observations deriving from account for human activities apparently not con- Freud’s ideas and theoretical constructions, as nected with sexuality, which have their main- well as the necessary theoretical underpinnings on spring however in the power of the sexual in- which it rests. Jungian theory and practice, stinct. Cultivated people who learn that a lecture though inspired by Freud, differ sharply from or study will discuss ‘sublimation’ will tend to Freudian theory and practice — as much as think that it is about psychoanalysis ‘applied’ to Lamarck differs from Darwin. This is why Jung cultural phenomena, especially to works of art himself referred to his own theory as ‘analytic such as literature or fine arts. On this view, psy- psychology’. To conflate them under a single choanalysis considers itself competent to put category as theologians are sometimes prone to forward interpretations on the basis of clinical do, even before E. Drewermann, is a misleading experience with psychopathology and the theory therapeutic and scientific ecumenism. In addition, that goes with it. Opinions are divided regarding the word ‘sublimation’ occurs extremely rarely in this kind of applied psychoanalysis. Some expect Jung’s works and has little meaning there. The it to yield special insight into the irrational or concept has no real place within his theory. even pathological sources of artistic creations. While ‘God’, Shiva, Christ, the devil, the holy Others are suspicious of the supposed tendency to virgin mother, etc. may be the representative reduce all cultural creation to sexuality and covert forms of innate archetypes, it is not a sublimation pathology, and annoyed by the analytic zeal with of drives that has raised them to the level of which a secret sexual symbolism can be uncov- psychological ‘religion’. ered in all sorts of details, such as a raised finger, My decided choice for Freudian theory and a falling Icarus, etc. All these expectations, reser- practice rests on experience, on epistemological vations and rancour, however, are based on mis- arguments and on philosophical-anthropological conceptions. The expression ‘applied psychoanal- convictions. This point of view, however, does ysis’ does not come from Freud. He did make not mean that I think one should or can simply some references to literary works — Sophocles’ repeat Freud’s practical hints and theoretical Oedipus plays and Hamlet, among others — but statements. Precisely because Freud, like Newton he recognizes very clearly that these works exhib- and Darwin, was the founder of a new science, it their deeper meaning on their own account, so his theoretical concepts open up new fields for it is in fact they that teach the psychoanalyst to observation and thought. In this paper, however, I hear and to point out what he knows from analyt- will not carry out any technical exegesis of ical practice. Concerning artistic creation itself Freud’s texts and the discussion it has inspired.1 however, the psychoanalyst has little or nothing to offer, asserts Freud rightly or wrongly. Howev-

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er, the most prevalent misunderstanding of the resists such spontaneously desired complete and analytic concept of sublimation consists in treat- direct satisfaction. So one is confronted with a ing it as an explanatory scheme that does not choice: either seek satisfaction in opposition to belong to the guiding principles of clinical work, the rules of conduct ordering human dispositions but that gets ‘applied’ to non-clinical data, thus and activities, which leads to perversion of the remaining clinically unverifiable. drives, or repress the insistence of the drives and Freud’s theory of sublimation is clearly more the representation of satisfaction, which leads to a project than a fully elaborated theory. Neverthe- neurosis, or else partially sublimate the drives by less, of one thing we can be certain: the concept diverting them towards ‘a higher goal’. of sublimation is a key concept within Freud’s ‘Choice’ in this context does not initially clinical and anthropological theoretical system. It mean a reasoned position taken by a free and is also clear that the process of sublimation al- morally responsible will. And yet, the attitude ways carries an ethical significance, even when it adopted by the person in conflict, and this would does not involve attitudes and actions that would include a very young and not yet ‘rational’ sub- be called ethical in the strict sense. This is al- ject, does not arise according to the causal neces- ready of importance for a philosophical ethics: sity of the physical world. It is indeed a psycho- the psychoanalytic theory of sublimation shows logical event. Quite early, before any clear free- that the ethical is such a fundamental anthropo- dom of the will has been established, a decision logical dimension that it belongs to everything process with moral significance regularly takes that is specifically human, i.e., to everything that place. The term ‘perversion’ clearly also has is not physiological, biological and neurobiologi- ethical implications, but it is not morally correct cal about the human body. to label psychological perversions as expressions In order to understand the relation between of a morally perverted evil will. With regard to ethics and sublimation, one must go back to the the theory of sublimation and the observation and basic postulates of Freud’s theory and practice as interpretation of neuroses, the problem of moral they were constructed on the basis of experience responsibility is much more complex than moral with the psychotherapy of neuroses and theoreti- philosophers and theologians often suspect. In- cally elaborated with the aim of finding an appro- sights provided by phenomenology and linguistic priate therapy. The interpretation and treatment of analysis also point to the mixed transitional reali- psychoses (schizophrenia, paranoia, manic depres- ty that is the free moral will. sive psychosis) involves completely different In explanations of sublimation, Freud and the clinical and psychological concepts, and so the analysts mainly discuss the sexual drives. And problem of sublimation cannot be considered in yet, for Freud himself at least, this includes all of the same way there. For this reason, I will leave the drives, precisely because no human drive is a this theoretical field outside the present discus- pre-programmed plan of behaviour like the ani- sion. Very early on, Freud formulated the follow- mal instincts which only vary slightly. Aggression ing basic postulates and maintained them drives, self-preservation drives and possessive throughout his entire scientific and therapeutic drives can and should be partially sublimated as activity. A person experiences the insistent de- well. The reason why Freud seems to discuss mands of the drives from a very young age. A sublimation of the sexual drive in particular can person can neither escape these demands nor only be explained by way of a thorough, critical allow them to remain open and ongoing. They study of his problematic conception of the sexual must be satisfied. However, the unavoidable drive. Suffice it to say here that all drives share necessity of reality — of nature and of society — an essential feature that Freud noted and studied

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primarily in the sexual drive: their erotic charac- course, for different cultural activities. ter. The bodily and psychological experiences of Sublimation is a process in which the subject human activities always awaken a feeling of as a psychological entity directs the drive towards pleasure or displeasure that cannot be reduced to a goal that is not immediately connected with it, the enjoyment of a functional satisfaction of need. and that only provides satisfaction if the psycho- Something of this psychic uniqueness also exists logical subject adapts the drive to the goal. The in animals, just as they also have a ‘shadow’ of objectives of sublimation can be very different, human knowledge, but drive satisfaction among but they all have one feature in common, which humans is so markedly guided by non-functional Freud indicates by the comprehensive terms ‘cul- enjoyment that such enjoyment can also be tural values’ or ‘higher values’. In these expres- sought for its own sake, even at the expense of a sions, one can recognize the appreciation Freud healthy ordering of needs. Resting on biological the Enlightenment thinker had for the progress of and functional behaviour, then, humans also the ‘spirit’. Likewise, in biblical monotheism he develop an entire universe of conduct and cre- admired the quality of Vergeistlichung that is ations of a symbolic nature that provide enjoy- actualized in religion and in humanity. In Freud’s ment of a higher order. Human uniqueness was language, Geist retains all the richness that the already an object of attention and admiration in word had come to invoke for German culture. Greek philosophy. Of course, enjoyment is a Geist bears its meaning in opposition to sensuali- clearly expressed feature in the case of sexuality, ty, immediacy, unrefined pleasure, and also in the but it precedes psychologically developed, hetero- distinction between what belongs to physical sexually structured sexuality. It can also suffer nature and what human beings establish as cul- serious disturbances. As a proposal for resolving ture. Consider also that we call the human scienc- the antitheses and lacunae in Freud’s texts on es Geisteswissenschaften in opposition to the sexuality, and on drives in general, I would sug- natural sciences. For all of these reasons, Geist gest considering the libido as the erotic moment must not simply be thought according to the in every drive. By the term libido I do not mean ontological dualism of mind and body. a generalized psychic energy, as Jung does, nor a Through sublimation, the subject is able to differentiated sexual drive, as Freud does in many meet the demands of natural and social reality, texts, but rather the dynamic directedness towards avoid neurosis-producing repression, and have a a pleasure that is experienced and valued on its share in ‘spirituality’ by placing a portion of the own account, that is first awakened by the activi- drives at the service of spiritual values. From the ties of life, that is strongly present in physiologi- sublimation process as we have described it, it cally inherited and developing sexuality, and that becomes clear that it is in itself an ethical event, can also develop into many characteristically even if the drive is not directed towards be- human activities. haviour that is explicitly characterized as ethical Freud believes that all drives are susceptible to by moral philosophy. ‘Ethics’, or the equivalent sublimation, and that all drives ought to be par- term of Latin origin ‘morality’, refers to the sys- tially sublimated. On the other hand, Freud talks tem of rules of conduct that one follows (or about all cultural activities as forms of sublima- should follow) in one’s private and social life. An tion, or at least as possibilities for sublimation: action is moral if it can be justified in light of art, science, professional life, religion, ethics. The these rules of conduct recognized by the (ideal) condition is that they have the quality of pleasure, human community. The ‘higher values’, however, not of meaningless but necessary labour. The at whose service sublimation places the drives are nature and degree of pleasure is different, of not always actions to which one can apply the

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formal category ‘moral’. Artistic creation and spirituality. The human, as a being of drives, has enjoyment do not fall under the jurisdiction of the capacity for spirituality, but his humanity is moral rules of conduct, unless the designation only effectively established by partially sublimat- ‘art’ is merely a cover for a product that is in- ing those drives. tended to stimulate the drive and direct it towards Some practical moral consequences can be an immediate satisfaction, such as the ‘art’ of derived from these assertions. Artistic creation pornography for instance. As for religion, it also and manifestation, religious cult, the preservation contains much more than ethics alone. The ten- of the natural landscape, scientific research with- dency to reduce the authentic, legitimate content out any obvious utility — these are all cultural of religion to ethics amounts to a reductive denial phenomena that do not belong as such to the of religion. And yet, from a psychoanalytic point sorts of actions ordered by morality, but they are of view, art and religion are both forms of subli- ‘spiritual’ activities of the greatest importance. If mation and, as such, they have a moral signifi- morality itself is subordinate to what can and cance because they are extremely important do- must be brought about by sublimation, then the mains in the spiritual elevation of human drives. responsible social authorities must also see it as Labour is also an example of such elevation, their moral duty to promote those forms of spiri- because it gives a spiritual quality to natural facts tual enjoyment within society. In light of the and allows for various pleasurable experiences in theory of sublimation, i.e., the theory of its activity, which make life meaningful. Labour humanity’s spiritual humanization, one would has, or at least can have, in itself a humanizing have to consider it a moralistic perversion of and hence a moral value, even before one consid- morality if the government were to refuse to ers the moral order that labour organizes accord- support such ‘useless’ activities so long as social ing to the laws of reason and justice. justice is not yet established, or the standard of Considered in the specificity just described, welfare can still be raised. ethics is but one of the activities whereby man realizes the progress of his spirit. In light of the The constitution of the ethical disposition theory of sublimation, ethics is not a comprehensive theory of values and does not by itself deter- 1. Moderate eudaemonism and the morality of mine the humanity of man. Every human experi- obligation — The concept of sublimation is so ence and activity has an axiological dimension, essential in psychoanalysis that Freud introduced precisely because of the pleasure/displeasure and continued to affirm it even though he recog- polarity that determines the drive as a human nized that it could not be theoretically clarified in dynamic. Ethics as a system of rules for be- a satisfactory manner. In this respect, the psycho- haviour is even subordinate to a more general analytic concept of sublimation is no different finality: guaranteeing and promoting the spiritual- from the key concepts of other sciences, such as ity of the human being. biological evolution, gravitational attraction, From a psychoanalytic perspective then, ethics neurobiochemistry, innate linguistic ability, etc. might be defined as the guardian of the axio- Psychoanalysis primarily considers the human logical dimension of human existence. This di- individual from the standpoint of its susceptibility mension has its foundation in the autonomous, to typically human psychopathology, a pathology non-utilitarian capacity for pleasure that consti- that is not the effect in the psyche of certain tutes one’s anthropological specificity. The axio- neural disturbances, but one which is itself psy- logical dimension develops according to the po- chically determined: the neuroses and, by exten- larity between natural, sensory immediacy and sion, the psychoses. Observation of neuroses has

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led psychoanalysis to affirm two main moral him desire, albeit in an uncertain and not explicit- principles: the ordering of life in accordance with ly conscious way. a eudaemonism which is moderated by the recog- On the basis of clinical experience, psycho- nition of obligations imposed by the reality of the analysis rejects two moral conceptions. It does body in its natural state, and by a pre-given, not believe in hedonism and it warns against the necessary society. Psychoanalysis certainly does tendency to allow the ‘tyrant Eros’ (Plato, Laws) not reject forms of higher morality, as long as to dominate the psyche. On the other hand, psy- they do not torment the individuals who are un- choanalysis points out the necessity of recogniz- able to bear their weight. Psychoanalysis does not ing the drive’s directedness to pleasure, and it uphold any moral theory of its own. However, it resists any morality that would equate human does consider the combination of a moderate perfection with a control over the drives that eudaemonism and a morality of obligation as excludes pleasure. necessary for spiritual health. A person is a being A moderate eudaemonism combined with a of drives who also belongs, as a language user, to morality of obligation entails a theory which the order of the ‘spirit’, the cultural order. As a considers a partial sublimation of the drives to be being of drives, moving within the polarity be- possible. Likewise, the principle which states that tween pleasure and displeasure, a person is driven every person, as a cultural being, is confronted from within towards the pleasurable satisfaction with the alternative between either partial subli- of those drives. It is impossible to forsake plea- mation or else neurosis also presupposes the sure. Even when one psychologically or physical- possibility of sublimation. Freud’s first theoretical ly destroys oneself, beneath the apparent negation pronouncements about this are quite schematic. of pleasure there is still at work a hidden pleasure He uses energetic metaphors such as: ‘directed of the drive. The idea of masochism has become towards’, ‘diverted to’ or ‘moving to’. After part of the popular psychological culture as a Freud, psychologists and moral philosophers still result of the influence of psychoanalysis. In the commonly use such terms. ‘Canalization’ is also strict sense, masochism is a perversion consisting a privileged hydraulic metaphor. Freud was never in the search for explicitly sexual pleasure in quite content with this. After some time, he ex- experiences of pain. The psychotic’s self-mutila- plicitly states that there must be a transformation tion, or the psychotic self-imprisonment in a sort of the drive. How could it be otherwise? The of psychological cage are much more complex drive and the goal must be correlated in every forms of drive satisfaction without any experi- activity. As is well known, Freud posed the prob- enced pleasure. Freud correctly characterized this lem particularly with regard to the sexual drive. phenomenon with the paradoxical formula ‘gener- How can it be transformed into artistic pleasure, al negation pleasure’ (allgemeine Verneinungs- into pleasure in seeking the truth, into human or lust). religious love? Freud recognized that he was Oriented towards drive satisfaction, a person never able to give a completely satisfactory an- cannot attain pleasurable drive satisfaction with- swer to these fundamental questions. I think the out being subjected to the demands placed on reason for this lies in his debatable conception of him by reality and society. If he were to radically the sexual drive. This has not, however, been and anarchically resist this, he would in fact given the attention it deserves. destroy himself, seeking pleasure not in a psy- In his psychoanalytic theory of the constitution chotic but in a psychopathic manner. He would of the ethical disposition, Freud made significant relinquish the higher pleasure which his involun- insights into the process of sublimation. I would tary participation in language and culture makes like to clarify these, making reference to Freud,

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but with the freedom to be critical. tive reactions arise are not yet of any use to the child, he says, and they push in the direction of 2. Moral feelings as reaction formations — Drives perversions that will only cause displeasure, given can be transformed by a spontaneous inner psy- the individual’s state of development. In any case, chic reaction that turns the goal from a morally such feelings are a kind of sublimation of the negative into a morally positive one. Freud de- partial sexual drives: they transform these drives scribes this under the heading ‘reaction forma- into moral formations which protect the develop- tions’2 He considers such formations to be ‘indi- ing sexuality and direct the individual towards the rect forms of sublimation processes’. In this con- cultural community. Freud even believes that a text, ‘indirect’ is to be contrasted with sublima- number of virtues have their source in ‘perverse’ tions where the dynamic of the drive shifts from sexual dispositions which have been turned into a sexual goal to a ‘higher’ goal that is somehow virtues. Two critical comments should be made analogous with the immediate sensory goal, for about this. First of all, at that moment there is not instance the sublimation of ‘voyeurism’ into the yet any true perversion. This is only established drive for scientific knowledge. when the reactive feelings do not structure sexu- Freud and many analysts in his wake consider ality in a normal way, for this is precisely the infantile sexuality to be ‘polymorphously per- psychological and moral function of the reaction verse’. At times, Freud warns against the illegiti- formations. They occur spontaneously, according mate tendency to give this designation the mean- to a psychological law regulated by the pleasure ing of a clinical diagnosis, since infantile sexuali- principle. The young subject reacts affectively in ty has not yet acquired the fixed form of a true the way that allows him to experience more plea- perversion. In the many places where he speaks sure than displeasure. This way of reacting is also of polymorphously perverse infantile sexuality, determined by the actions and gaze of others, Freud’s concept of the sexual drive is disturbing- who can promote either perversion and subse- ly ambiguous. Psychoanalysis correctly pointed quent neurosis or a normal affective and sexual out that there is indeed an infantile form of the development. Precisely because sublimation is an sexual drive that develops in phases and that is internal reactive and interactive process, the data progressively structured either perversely or else generated by the moral or perverse feelings will homoerotically or heterosexually. Psychoanalysis differ according to the culture and situation in also correctly pointed to the fact that infantile which people find themselves. Nakedness for eroticism very early develops feelings that pro- instance does not always have the same signifi- vide sexuality with a moral orientation, a fact that cance in different cultures, nor will it have for the can easily be verified by attentive observation. child who exhibits himself. Children who initially like to exhibit themselves As a clinical science, psychoanalysis has will at a certain moment have feelings of anxiety shown how moral disposition is pre-rationally or even of shame, feelings that apparently arise formed through humanization of the drive. As a spontaneously in reaction to the pleasure of exhi- bodily and psychical power, the drive is the af- bition. Children who play with their faeces and fective capacity that is directed towards enjoyable proudly display them will, at a later age, have an satisfaction, spontaneously resisting displeasure. affective reaction against this and have feelings of The phenomenological analyses of Max Scheler distaste or even disgust. This kind of reversal is and J. Buytendijk have masterfully demonstrated mysterious. Freud interprets it in light of the the profound and universally human significance drive dynamic as it works in the child’s situation. of feelings such as anxiety and shame. Psycho- The upsurge of the drive against which the affec- analysis reaffirms these insights and explains how

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they came about, how their development can be to do with the erotic drive. disturbed, and what the clinical and moral conse- The factors leading to the creation of such quences of that might be. Humanization of the paranoic phenomena are clearly psychological; drive, or the sublimatory transformation of the the illness is therefore a psychological oc- drive, occurs by overcoming the virtual perver- currence. The content of the illness has a mean- sions. If such sublimation does not take place, the ing; as a result, paranoia must be interpreted erotic (pleasure-seeking) drive takes the form of psychologically even when medical therapy is perversion (in exhibitionism and voyeurism, plea- recommended. It is undoubtedly a question of sure in obscene practices, pleasure in suffering strong affective links, thus pertaining to the pain and in inflicting it). drives, both in the lead-up to and in the meaning Whenever a perverse tendency of the drive is of the pathology. Something takes place in the established early and yet, for one reason or anoth- drive relationship that is outside normal con- er, leads unconsciously to displeasure, a second sciousness. It is an occurrence that involves deep spontaneous reaction most often occurs in the psychic archaic layers of the drive and of the subject, partly under the influence of the sur- feeling, layers that always remain operational in roundings: the formation of neurosis by the re- adults. Because it is the drive relationship and the pression of the perverse drive representations. A feelings produced by it that are at stake, one must more thorough analysis can be made of these conclude that the erotic drive is at work in this phenomena. I will return to them after a discus- pathology, the drive in its aspect concerned with sion of social feelings. the sexually equal, the similar: the homoerotic drive. Freud, who made no distinction between 3. The social feelings and virtues — Clinical eroticism and sexuality, places ‘homosexuality’ at observation of paranoid disturbances, such as the basis of paranoia. persecution complexes and pathological jealousy, Clinical observation of the factors leading to led Freud to explain the formation of social feel- paranoia and the analysis of the content of para- ings as a sublimation of the erotic drive, particu- noid delusions do not exhibit homosexuality, but larly the homophile drive. This claim annoyed rather hate which replaces a previous friendship, many people who do not see the psychoanalytic affective attachment to a father figure or profes- arguments in the context of concrete clinical sional feelings of collegiality. Paranoia, then, studies. In order to understand Freud’s claim as incites us to think that drive relations must also possibly meaningful, one must reflect on clinical lie at the foundation of normal, humanly valuable observations. Intense friendship and deep affec- feelings of friendship. Freud then concludes, tive relations with a father figure can change into correctly in my opinion, that social feelings arise a persecution complex. How can this be under- from a sublimation of the homoerotic, ‘homo- stood? And what does it mean that in the case of sexual’ drive relations. It is precisely because pathological jealousy where a man suspects his these drive relations are transformed through wife of deceiving him, all the man’s attention is sublimation that, in cases of a narcissistic wound, apparently directed towards his alleged rival, sublimation can also be reduced and feelings of much more than towards his wife? And why can love can switch to feelings of hate. The patholog- a narcissistic wound end up as a paranoid delu- ical madness of such hate betrays that it is the sion because of a professional rival’s success. reversal of a love based on the drive. All love These clinical facts reveal, according to Freud, can change into hate, precisely because all love that the affective relations in social life between arises from the sublimation of the erotic drive. an individual and his fellow man have something Regarding the distinction that I make, contrary

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to Freud, between homoeroticism and homosexu- introduced the term ‘Cain complex’ in this con- ality, I would repeat the claim that I already nection, by analogy with Freud’s Oedipus com- made concerning the perversions. In my view, plex. In a humanized person, this murderous homosexuality is the result of a further develop- aggression turns into sympathy, doing good, ment of the homoerotic drive that does not go on redressing wrongs, sensitivity to ‘the sacred’. to sublimation. The pressure of a physiologically Szondi also calls this transformation ‘sublima- and relationally determined sexuality then gets tion’. polarized onto the same sex. Other clinical observations confirm the psy- Sublimation and moral attitudes choanalysis of the formation of social feelings. It is recognized, for example, that teachers are 1. The ego ideal — I mentioned in the foregoing sometimes guilty of ‘paedophilia’. This is a that sublimation is a psychological process regu- dreadful word for the perversion of pederasty. lated by the polarity of pleasure and displeasure, Facts show that a sort of homoerotic drive rela- and one which precedes all reasoned attitudes. tion underlies pedagogical love, which is its sub- And yet, sublimation is not some automatism that limation. Yet all sublimation is fragile and re- befalls the psyche and which the psyche would quires vigilance. Pedagogical sublimation is un- passively undergo. The psyche is what completes doubtedly the beneficial psychological foundation sublimation. In this sense, the psyche is a subject of a pedagogy carried out with humane love. It that one should consider as a pre-ego. was largely this kind of homoeroticism that the I have stated that the psyche carries out the Athenians developed and appreciated. They took process of sublimation under the influence of the greater liberties than our culture tolerates, also human environment. This now has to be clarified. because they valued women to a lesser degree. I will follow Freud’s insights to the extent that I Yet they also warned against addiction to paedo- think they require explanation, without repeating philia. Pedagogical love will always involve the an exegesis and discussion of his research on this risk of paedophilia and pederasty, but pedagogical point. paedophilia has nothing in common with the In an extremely important study inspired by sadistic perversions recently mentioned in the new clinical problems, Freud introduced the term criminal reports. ‘narcissism’ to indicate a phase in the normal There also exist social feelings that are appar- constitution of the ego. Narcissism is the erotic ently not the direct sublimation of a homoerotic (in the sense defined above) movement of the attachment, but they concern those others with psyche reflecting back upon itself, such that the whom one is not affectively related by friendship, ego is constituted through this reflexive libidinal professional familiarity or solidarity. I am think- act as the centre of feeling, desire and also lin- ing here of the altruistic concern for those who guistic consciousness. Philosophers can best un- suffer physically or mentally, philanthropic initia- derstand this by drawing a comparison with the tives, or even passionate animal rights activists. reflexive constitution of self-consciousness as According to Freud and many analysts following described by Descartes. Through this libidinal him, these are social feelings that arise from a reflexivity, the ego, in its very constitution, insti- reversal of aggressive drive feelings. Most of the tutes a distance from itself. It is whatever it can virtues, on Freud’s view, are produced as reactive become. With this inner openness, the ego takes formations, which means by an ‘indirect sublima- up a reference to the desired existential possibili- tion’ as I described in the previous section. The ties that it sees before it. In the way that it is well known psychiatrist and analyst L. Szondi treated and cared for, in the feelings that it hears

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expressed between its father and mother, in the appreciation, generosity and responsiveness. cleanliness and regularity of bodily hygiene, in The ego ideal is also an important factor in the rhythm of language and song, the young child the sublimation of homoeroticism in friendship. already perceives what is designated by the ab- We need only think of what Aristotle already stract term ‘cultural values’. The child takes up claimed, that friendship implies a community of these values, internalizes them, at least if they are interests and a relation of giving and receiving. perceived as sufficient sources of pleasure. In this What psychoanalysis teaches on the basis of the way, the ego forms its ego ideal as an inner form clinical observations already mentioned is that of existence towards which the ego is directed, a this value relationship rests on a psychologically beloved prospective image of everything the ego archaic sublimation which is guided and attracted wants to experience, to do and to be. by a pre-conscious, communal ego ideal. The psychic ego that completes the sublimation process directs itself to the ideal that it bears 2. Moral dispositions and attitudes — Sublimation within itself as a structural component. This event is a pre-moral psychological process, with an can be concretely analyzed for every case of evidently moral meaning, that makes up the psy- sublimation. Take the case of the formation of chological foundation of the explicitly moral shame (in the sense of timidity, not social feel- dispositions and attitudes. Every form of sublima- ings of guilt). The amoral, but not yet perverse tion already has a moral significance, and every exhibitionistic pleasure shown by a normal sublimation contributes to the formation of a child’s body characterized by drives encounters, disposition that promotes moral behaviour, since at a certain moment in its psychical development, every sublimation implies a renunciation of the the gaze of the other which acquires a new mean- immediate, bodily satisfaction of the drives. And ing. The young child realizes that the other is all sublimation contributes to the development of looking with a sexually inviting gaze, or with a the sexual drive in such a way that it does not get gaze that is neutral, or with a dismissive gaze. Of imprisoned in an addictive perversion. However, course, these relation forms are determined by certain forms of sublimation, having to do with cultural tradition and by the often unconscious erotic intersubjective relations, have a more pro- psychological disposition of the others. In any nounced moral significance: friendship, feelings case, the initial libidinal expression loses the of shame and aversion, common ideals, philan- innocence of a natural, not yet human, and not thropy, etc. yet morally qualified behaviour. At that moment, Psychoanalysis teaches us how deeply rooted the child becomes a self-constituting ego and can our moral dispositions and attitudes are in psy- take up the ideal of feeling and behaviour that its chic structures and processes. Describing moral cultural environment offers by the forms of inter- judgement as the rational ability to resolve dilem- action just mentioned. In its reactions, the young mas according to rational criteria, as Kohlberg ego then directs itself at that inner ideal which has done, testifies to a narrow anthropological announces a new, and more ‘spiritual’ form of viewpoint. The intimate unity between archaic pleasure. Shame as an experience of the intact psychic formations and moral competence also inner self, and as an affective reaction to the results in the consequence that human freedom other, is in fact a detour through the ego ideal, a must be considered as more limited than moralists sublimation of the ‘partial’ erotic drive that pro- tend to think. On the other hand, it is simply vokes exhibitionistic pleasure. Later, the play wrong to deny freedom, as Freud did in certain of involved in love can provide that sublimated his texts that reject an impoverished concept of pleasure with the deep symbolic meaning of freedom. A simple dismissal of freedom would

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imply a mistaken perception of the dynamic constitution of ethics: ‘thou shalt not kill’ is the tension that psychoanalysis reveals between the demand placed on humanity to change its ag- ego and the ego ideal. It is precisely sublimation gressive drives into an attachment that can insti- that makes the moral disposition and decisions tute society, and into respect for one’s fellow possible. Perversion and neurosis are the two men. The absolute nature of the negative prohibi- forms where sublimation did not take place, or tion moves in the direction of a universal respect did not sufficiently succeed. These two patholo- for all human life. gies hinder the formation of the moral disposition The psychoanalytic theory of sublimation can and reduce, often extensively, the freedom to perhaps assist philosophical ethics in understand- assume moral attitudes. In such cases, one sees ing its concept of ‘values’. ‘Values’ is a term that seemingly moral attitudes are actually, in to borrowed from economic thought. Transferred to Freud’s striking expression, Verwerfungsurteile: ethics, it is an ambiguous term. What is the onto- judgements ruled by affective rejection. On logical status of a moral value? It does not exist Freud’s view, the true moral attitude, on the as a factual given, nor can it be thought of as contrary, is a Urteilsverwerfung, a judgement of being simply attainable. In this sense it is tran- rejection. scendent, but not as being is. Is this not necessar- The negative form of this expression, ‘judge- ily so, precisely because a moral attitude always ment of rejection’, irritates many of our contem- gives expression to what humans, as libidinal poraries. They tend to resist any morality that beings, consider to be worthy within a human speaks in terms of commands, let alone prohibi- manner of being and acting, and because what tions. They would prefer the more noble term, they consider to be worthy is always what corre- ‘moral values’. But our irritated contemporaries sponds to their never realized ego ideal? Moral seem to forget that moral attitudes are always values move within the dynamic field of sublima- involved in a sublimation which already contains tion, governed by two principles that are indis- the negative moment of a renunciation of imme- pensable if one is to have a true sublimation: the diate pleasure, a detour of the drive’s tendency, a principle of moderate eudaemonism and the prin- spiritualization. Even our cherished decalogue ciple of a morality of obligation. testifies to this insight into the anthropological

Notes

1. For such background, I would take this opportunity to refer to my La psychanalyse à l’épreuve de la sublimation (Paris, Cerf, 1997). I think that the statements I make in the present article have been sufficiently supported in that book. 2. For the references to Freud’s texts, as well as the critical discussion of them, see my book La psychanalyse à l’épreuve de la sublimation, p. 218ff.

______Ethical Perspectives 5 (1998)2, p. 209