Sublimation and modern-day psychology?
Sublimation is an old concept in the realm of psychology that explains, supposedly, the manifestation of motivation derived from the ID. I'm not a psychologist; but, I believe that sublimation is a real phenomenon that can better explain how a person becomes motivated to behave in a positive manner even when the ID and ego are denied their inherent motivations because of the superego.
Now, I would like to ask the interlocutors, whether they agree whether sublimation exists and how you think it explains behavior. I ask this because I see many people able to cope with their own instincts better than other people. One person comes to my mind who may have mastered the art of sublimation. Elon Musk seems to have sublimated most of his anxiety and worries better than anyone else. Does the reader agree or disagree with this?
Now, I would like to ask the interlocutors, whether they agree whether sublimation exists and how you think it explains behavior. I ask this because I see many people able to cope with their own instincts better than other people. One person comes to my mind who may have mastered the art of sublimation. Elon Musk seems to have sublimated most of his anxiety and worries better than anyone else. Does the reader agree or disagree with this?
Comments (12)
https://nextpix.medium.com/beyond-sublimation-233388f9407e
How well do you know Musk in order to arrive at this?
Well, again, I'm just an armchair psychologist, psychologizing his existential desire to move the world towards electric vehicles, then build tunnels to alleviate congestion on the streets, then build rockets to get to Mars so that we're a multiplanetary species, then develop Artificial Intelligence to direct cars on the road safer or as safely as possible, then buy Twitter, now known as X so he can talk with people around the world about his ambitions without much hesitation and gather interest...
So, yeah, if you get my drift, the guy might have a lot of pent up anxiety, or just desire for lack of a better word. Oh yeah, and some brain device that can make paraplegics and the disabled, not so paraplegic or disabled anymore.
Just my two cents. :chin:
I've seen him interviewed - seems like a douchebag. But that's not a diagnosis, that's personal taste.
Are you saying that someone who is hyperactive and successful (and probably lucky) has harnessed their anxiety and channeled (sublimated) this into useful enterprises?
I think there are various spins to sublimation - depending upon the era of the psychologist. Isn't the idea that it's a defence mechanism involving socially unacceptable impulses or behaviors which are transformed (sublimated) into socially acceptable actions or behaviors? Which probably means you'd need to know the person well to determine whether it's a good case or not.
The example often used is that of a sociopath who becomes a surgeon - channelling their antisocial urges (cutting people up) and taking risks with life without emotion.
I'm not sure. Again, just psychologizing here and there, I can say that he disclosed on a SNL episode that he suffers from Asperger's, and from what I can gather, might also have ADHD. It would be hard to say whether he is lucky, as he seems to be one of those self-made men in the American folklore.
Quoting Tom Storm
Yeah, that's the classic Freudian take on it. But, I see it more as a adaptive defense mechanism, where a person internalizes some disliking about what is going on around them and decides to alter or change the way things are happening or in other words turn a maladaptive behavior into adaptive behavior. I think this is more in line with Maslow rather than Freud or Jung.
Quoting Tom Storm
Not sure if that pertains to sociopaths only, methinks.
How does the sublimation frame help you make sense of people?
How do you think it works in Musks case?
It doesn't in most cases; but, if one were to conjecture, then maybe it is true for the highly stratified individuals in society, especially philosophers, like Marx or Nietzsche's overman. But, I don't have enough information to extrapolate on this line of reasoning, and there are examples of philosophers that floundered when confronted with stuff like philosophical pessimism. Don't want to cherry pick examples here or there.
Quoting Tom Storm
Musk seems to be unique in that he overtly states what troubles him in many of his interviews and decides to quickly act on those disliking's in providing solutions to avoid or adapt in a better manner towards, what he calls, "existential threats."
Do we accept what Musk says as the actual explanation for his actions? I'm never sure how we assess such interviews. He is certainly adept at building a personal mythos, like many marketing types.
Quoting Shawn
And many, many bad ones. I have worked closely with several CEO's over the years and known many others. The most common things I see are narcissism and the desire to be surrounded by acolytes. I'm not sure if this is inherent to a CEO role as much as it's the product of the culture in which CEO's often work.
That's a cool name, "Twitter, now known as X". When will the sublimation be complete?
Good for him, if that's true. But I imagine it is not black and white. There are likely more layers to what surfaces as sublimation than even experts can address. But for one, is it really sublimation taking place? Or is it a "healthy" denial or turning away? Are the hypothetical anxieties transfigured into "x"? Or are they set aside, always clamoring against success, to surface? That's one layer. For Musk, another is his seeming financial security. Has he sublimated his anxieties? Or does he have the means to many distractions? And so on.
I understand and appreciate the question, but think it is complex.
I guess, as an afterthought, you may be after a simple point, and a simple point can be made, which is, Musk has applied all of the contents of his experience and achieved success, despite his anxieties. Notwithstanding the potential for relapse, or whether it's just marketing himself as a resilient brand, is that not healthy sublimation?