She later notes that the Ego uses sublimation to achieve “its purpose of diverting the instinctual impulses from their purely sexual goal to aims which society holds to be higher.” (A., Freud, 1966, p. 175).
George Vaillant offered a more recent summary of the sublimation process in conjunction with his longitudinal study of men adapting to life. According to Vaillant (1977/1998, p. 386), sublimation is:
“Indirect or attenuated expression of instincts without either adverse consequences or marked loss of pleasure. It includes both expressing aggression through pleasurable games, sports, and hobbies; and romantic attenuation of instinctual expression during a real court ship. Unlike humor, with sublimation “regression in the service of the ego” has real consequences. Unlike the case with “neurotic” defenses, with sublimation instincts are channeled rather than dammed or diverted. Successful artistic expression remains the classic example. In projection, one’s feelings (e.g., anger) are attributed to another person. In displacement one’s feelings are acknowledged as one’s own, but are redirected toward a relatively insignificant object, often without satisfaction. In sublimation, feelings are acknowledged, modified, and directed toward a relatively significant person or goal so that modest instinctual satisfaction results.”
Given these perspectives on sublimation as a “mature” defense, could some of our dreams make use of sublimation as a substitute for aggression—or even sexuality? On the one hand, we might dismiss sublimation as a process engaged in our dreams given that it involves an active though “indirect or attenuated” expression of some instinct. Just as children engage in play and fantasy, so as adults we often engage in playful activities. Johan Huizinger (2008) goes so far as to declare that human beings are deeply embedded in the desire to play (“homo ludens”). Our sublimated activities range from creative expression in the arts to altruistic caring for other people. We engage in waking life activities as a way to divert sexualized (or aggressive) energy to socially acceptable activities. We don’t engage in actual activities when we are dreaming.
On the other hand, like a child engaged in playful fantasy, we do “act” in our dreams—even if this activity is not “real” and does not result, as Vaillant notes, in actual “adverse” (or beneficial) consequences. In offering a summary of ego psychological perspectives, Greenberg and Mitchel (1983, p. 240) suggest that:
“The use of imagery in fantasy may enable one to approach problems from a fresh perspective; it may suggest solutions that would not have resulted from more logical thought. . . . Fantasy can create an environmental ‘breathing space’ from which one can return with new and creative adaptive possibilities.”
We might think of fantasy –and dreams—as producers of “pilot-tests” and “rehearsals.” Serving as “breathing spaces, fantasies and dreams enable us to try out alternative behaviors or test out a variety of solutions to real-life problems”—as we have noted when introducing the problem-solving function of dreams in other essays I have published in this series on dreams (Bergquist, 2023a). French and Fromm (1964) write about the essential role played by dreams in addressing lifelong focal conflicts, while Deirdre Barrett (2001) proposes that dreams serve as creative problem-solving committees. If dreams serve this vital problem-solving function, then sublimation might play a central role.
