A modern person daily awaits with a surprise in the form of various stressful situations, conflicts that require him to protect and relieve tension, such as sublimation.
The sublimation process
Speaking scientifically, this is one of the types of personal defense mechanisms, through which it relieves tension in a conflict situation by transforming its instinctive energy into that form of social activity that is desirable for both man and the world. Sigmund Freud described this theory as a certain deviation of the biological energy of man. That is, the sexual drives of the individual from their undoubted direct goal, redirecting them to those goals that society does not reject.
It is important to note that the sublimation process helps a person not to ignore his internal conflicts, but to direct all his energy to finding ways to resolve them.
Examples of sublimation in psychology
Sublimation can take many forms. So, for example, the sadistic aspirations of an individual can turn into a desire to be a surgeon. Also, sexual energy has the ability to sublimate in creativity (poets, artists), in anecdotes, jokes. Aggressive energy can transform in sports (boxing) or in strict education (exactingness towards own children). Eroticism, in turn, is in friendship.
That is, when a person can not find a natural detente with his instinctual drives, he unconsciously finds that kind of occupation, that activity, through which these impulses are released.
Freud found an explanation for the creativity of each individual through sublimation precisely, as the switching of the energy of her libido directly to the process of creativity.