It is possible to transform sexual desire into higher creative purposes if, for various reasons, it is not possible to express it naturally. In this article, Roberto Assagioli takes a close look at sexuality.
The future of humanity depends on psychology. I will give a current example, the problem of aggressive drives and the prevention of war. History has proven that all other means, all legal means, treaties and agreements did not work and do not work. We must go to the root. And at the root we find the aggressive drives associated with self-assertion and the resulting conflicts that arise in all groups. That is why in psychology and especially in psychosynthesis there exists the principle of the refinement of energies. In this way the instinctive psychological energies can be refined and used directly and channeled into other constructive purposes. I have written on this subject in my article: Transformation and Sublimation of the Sexual Drive . -Roberto Assagioli; In an interview with Beverly Besmer
By Roberto Assagioli; translated by Bent Christensen
Roberto Assagioli
The problem of sex; the problem of how to deal with sexual urges in a sensible and constructive way, has been a challenge for humanity since the beginning of civilization. For various reasons, this problem has now become more topical and urgent, and public attention to sex has become more pronounced – to use a common phrase, one could say that humanity has become pronouncedly sex-fixated.
The crises in the relationship between the two sexes are not isolated cases, but are prominent aspects and form part of the general crises. In a profound way, this kind of crisis can affect the very foundations of existing civilization.
Old norms in decline
The authority of the religious and moral principles on which our civilization was based, as well as the rules and customs that were previously considered natural and accepted (even if they were not always followed to the letter), have today lost or are rapidly losing their significance and their binding and regulating power. The youth often and sometimes violently rebel against them. The main reason for the crisis has been that while religious devotion and the unconditional acceptance of the theological and moral views of earlier times are rapidly losing their hold on people, the older and more rigid orthodox religious movements have tried, by sheer authority, to reinforce the strict rules with condemnations and prohibitions based on theological and moral principles.
Thus, in the sexual sphere, an attitude prevailed in the past which led the common man to regard the biological instincts and human passions as something bad and unclean. The general attitude was therefore that the sexual sphere should be suppressed, except when the sexual drive could be satisfactorily justified through legal marriage. The whole sphere of sex was considered something impure, and adults tried to keep the youth in ignorance of it for as long as possible.
Rebellion against sexual repression
The weakening of the religious influence behind this attitude, and a recognition of the harmful effects on health and character resulting from repression, provoked various rebellious movements. First there was the “back to nature” movement, championed by Rousseau and his followers. Then came the romantic movement, which glorified the emotions of romanticism. Later, the hedonistic and aesthetic ideas of ancient Greece and the Renaissance were revived, followed by the wave of philosophical and practical materialism and the individual resistance to society and its norms, as portrayed by Ibsen.
In modern society, the influence of Freud and his followers through the psychoanalytic movement has perhaps been even more important, for they emphasized the psychopathological effects resulting from sexual repression. All this helped to foster and justify the uncontrolled gratification of all drives and impulses—to give vent to every passion and to follow every whim or whim.
Sexual liberation did not create happiness
But the result of this “liberation” did not bring the expected satisfaction and happiness. While it eliminated some of the relapses into the strict attitude of the past and the resulting suffering, it created other complications, conflicts, and suffering. The adherents of the uncontrolled mode of sexual expression discovered and are still discovering that exaggerations are necessarily followed by exhaustion and disgust; that sexual urges and passions, even when not controlled by moral considerations, cannot always bring satisfaction because of the lack of suitable partners. Moreover, different urges often came into conflict with each other, so that the indulgence of one urge required the prohibition of another. Thus, for example, an unwise indulgence of the sexual urge tends to clash with the urge for self-preservation and to create conflict between, for example, desire and fear of disease. Furthermore, an exaggerated sense of self-assertion may come into conflict with social mores and customs and a consequent fear of the risks involved.
A lack of any kind of fixed guiding principles and value norms makes the individual insecure and robs him of his self-confidence and makes him overly susceptible to the influences of other people and external circumstances. Furthermore, it is not possible to eliminate ethical and spiritual principles or aspirations as easily as many seem to think. They remain in the unconscious due to hereditary and environmental influences, and are also found latent in the true spiritual being of man. If they are violated, they provoke conscious or unconscious protests and subsequently create strong inner conflicts.
For the sake of clarity, the picture of the situation has been grossly simplified. In reality, we are in a transitional period of confusion and cross-currents. In certain places and in certain groups, the old conditions survive, where old perceptions and methods are still enforced. In other places, violent reactions and conflicts arise between the generations. In the more enlightened and advanced circles the excessive nature of the reaction has been understood, and attempts are being made to find suitably balanced views and sensible and well-founded methods.
It is obvious that neither of the two extreme positions can give a satisfactory result. It might be imagined that a compromise between the two might be the way out of the impasse, but although such a sensible approach might avert the worst results of the extremes, experience indicates that the method cannot be considered generally a satisfactory solution.
The transformation of sexual drive
There is, however, another solution, a more dynamic and constructive way of dealing with the problem. It is based on and benefits from a fundamental property of biological and psychological energies, namely the possibility of transforming or transmuting them – a possibility that exists in connection with all forms of energy.
The true nature of the process is not well known, but so it is with all “truths.” For example, we cannot claim to have understood the true nature of electricity; but we know enough about its manifestations and laws to be able to regulate them, and to make use of electricity in many and often complicated ways, such as in the field of electronics. The same is true in the psychological field. We do not need to know the ultimate compositions and transmuting properties of psychological energies in order to be able to increasingly use them through a growing knowledge of the laws that govern them and to find appropriate and effective methods based on these laws. We can therefore confidently continue our investigations into these methods in order to create constructive uses for excessively strong or excessive sexual urges. This is very valuable, for example, in balancing the sexual appetite between man and woman in marriage, or where adjustments have to be made for situations where normal sexual relations are not possible.
Changes in attitudes towards sexuality
The first rule is to adopt an objective attitude towards sex; free from the traditional reactions such as fear, austerity and condemnation as well as any glorification and glamorization – often artfully expressed as we experience it in our time.
The sexual drive, like all other drives, is in itself neither “good” nor “bad”. It is a biological function that is not immoral, but pre-moral . It is of great importance, since it ensures the survival of animals and humans. In animals it is subject to a natural cyclical self-regulation. In civilized humanity it has become complicated because of its close connection with psychological functions such as emotions and imagination, as well as with social and ethical factors that have either overemphasized or prohibited the drive. The objective scientific attitude towards the sexual drive should therefore be twofold. On the one hand, we should eliminate the fear and condemnation that cause the drive to be repressed into the unconscious, as psychoanalysis has demonstrated. On the other hand, we should exercise calm but firm control followed by an active process of transformation in cases where the natural expression of the drive is not desired.
The process of psychological transformation and sublimation is symbolically indicated – albeit in obscure, dim or incomprehensible ways – in the writings of the alchemists (Jung, 9b). Other references can be found among writers of texts on asceticism and mysticism, such as Evelyn Underhill. In the modern treatment of the subject we find the following significant statement by Freud: “The elements of the sexual instincts are characterized by a capacity for sublimation, for changing their sexual aim into another and more socially worthy aim. The highest and greatest results in our culture are therefore perhaps due to the sum of the total energies working through our psychological productions.” (Freud: Ueber Psychoanalyse , Leipzig and Vienna, Deutike, 1910, pp. 61-62) (footnote 1.). This statement is important, because here Freud demonstrates the fallacy of considering the physical and instinctual aspects of sexuality as something separate and independent from the emotional and other psychological aspects of sexuality.
This error is committed by certain investigators who have a materialistic bent. Such a purely biological view is entirely one-sided, and although these investigators have accumulated vast quantities of evidence, to deny the vital connection with the psychological aspects of sexuality, which are part of the true man, will distort the conclusions drawn from the material. James Hinton wittily remarked over half a century ago that to dwell solely on the physical expression of sexual love would be like thinking, during a performance of Sarasta, that cat intestines and horse tail hair were used to make violin strings and bow strings (Ellis, 6).
In our attempt to define the nature of sexuality, we find three main areas:
1. A sexual aspect: physical pleasure;
2. An emotional aspect: union with another human being;
3. A creative aspect: the birth of a new creature.
This division does not claim to be scientifically correct, but constitutes a practical aid in the process of transformation. Each of the aspects mentioned can be transformed or sublimated according to its own specific character.
The vertical transformation
The transformations can also take place in two directions. The first is the “vertical” or inward direction. Many cases of this form of sublimation are presented through the lives and written works of mystics from all times, places and religions. Their autobiographies are full of the most interesting cases in connection with this process, its crises and vicissitudes. The sufferings are reported in detail, and the joys that are the reward for the stress and torment created are also reported in detail. They all speak of the “bliss” they experience – but which they nevertheless consider as a possible obstacle if one is attracted to it. One can also experience the various steps that lead from human love to a love for a higher being, such as the Christ or God himself. This is the sublimation of the emotional aspect. One strives for a union with the inner Christ, and some of the mystics refer to this as a “mystical marriage.” In psychological terms, one could say that the goal of spiritual synthesis is the union of the personality and the spiritual Self, the personality representing the negative, feminine pole and the spiritual Self the positive, masculine pole. This polarity is a reality and not merely a symbolic transfer of a biological fact. These are some of the fundamental aspects associated with the polarity between spirit and matter and reflect themselves, so to speak, as spirit and matter on the psycho-spiritual level, while at the same time expressing themselves as a sexual polarity on the physical level.
Let us pause here for a moment to remove certain confusions and misunderstandings that may arise. Although the process of transformation and sublimation can often be observed, it must not be concluded from this that all spiritual love is “merely” the result of sublimated sexuality, that it is possible to “explain away” a higher psychological or spiritual manifestation by attributing its origin to biological sources or driving forces. Although there are many people who have a normal sexual life, the creation of a family, etc., while having unique mystical experiences, the true nature of mysticism cannot, although some researchers have maintained this, be considered merely as a product or by-product of sexuality.
Spiritual life and consciousness belong to a limited psychological level and have properties that are specific and not derived from elsewhere. The transformed energies coming from below reach this level and add additional vitality and “heat”, but they neither create nor explain the higher life. The creative aspect can be sublimated in this “vertical” direction through the formation of a new regenerated personality. The growth of the “inner man” claims these creative energies, and according to the extent to which the individual uses them, new spheres of actions of increasing greatness will open up to him.
The horizontal transformation
The second direction of the process is the “horizontal” or outward direction. Here we also experience three forms of transformation, corresponding to the three aspects or main areas. Rather than being an actual transformation, the first consists in creating other pleasures for the sexual senses, ranging from the simple pleasure of food and the joy of contact with nature to aesthetic pleasures through the cultivation of beauty experiences through sight and hearing. The second form consists in an increase or expansion of love so that it includes an increasing number of people. The third form creates or evokes artistic and intellectual activities.
When the physical, sexual expression of human love is blocked for some reason, its emotional or sentimental manifestations can be intensified and reach a higher ideal level, “platonic” love. Furthermore, between people in harmonious marriages, and independent of any obstacles to the free and complete expression of love, a gradual, normal and spontaneous process of transformation occurs. At first, the sexual and intense emotional manifestations of love will predominate, but as the years pass, this passionate aspect cools and transforms into tender and gentle feelings, an increasing mutual understanding and appreciation, and an inner community.
The love energy that comes from sexual sublimation can and will expand beyond the love for one individual. It expands in concentric circles or spheres, enclosing ever larger groups of people. In the form of compassion, it flows out to those who are suffering, after which it undergoes a further transformation and becomes a motivating force associated with social and philanthropic actions. Sublimated love energy can also be expressed as companionship and friendship with those with whom we have a common basis of understanding, goals, and activity. The energy can reach further and radiate as brotherly love in relation to all people and to all living things.
Transformation through art
The third form of transformation of sexual energies takes place in creative activities of an artistic or intellectual nature. The following statement by a great philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, strongly emphasizes this point of view:
“On those days and at those times when the tendency to lust is stronger… the higher spiritual energies also tend to be awakened in a stronger way… They are inactive when the human consciousness is exhausted by desire, but through effective efforts their direction can be changed and the human consciousness can be occupied with the highest activities of the mind instead of with the lower and painful forms of desire.”
It turns out that there is a profound similarity between sexual energy and the creative energies operating on other levels in man. Artistic productions offer a particularly suitable channel for sublimation, and there are many instances of this among the great artists, writers, and composers. A prominent example of this is found in Richard Wagner. As may be known, he was at one time passionately in love with a married woman, Mathilde Wesendonck, to whom he gave music lessons, and in whom he found the understanding of his genius which he lacked in his first wife, Minna. After a short time they decided to forego the consummation of their love, and Wagner left Zurich and went, or rather fled, to Venice. At first his desperate mood urged him to commit suicide, but he soon came to his senses and sat down to write both the libretto and the music for Tristan und Isolde ; and in a state of creative fury he completed the opera in a few months. During this period he wrote many letters to Mathilde and kept a diary intended for her. The diary and letters were published after his death, and here one can clearly trace the gradual cooling of his passion, which found expression instead in the poetry and music of his opera. By the time the work was completed, he was so impartial and objective that he wrote to Mathilde in a rather lukewarm and much lighter mood, and he even paid her a visit out of purely friendly intentions. That Wagner was aware of this process of sublimation and consciously sought to nurture it is clear from a letter he wrote to Liszt: “Since I have never in my life enjoyed the true happiness of love, I want to erect a monument to this most beautiful of all dreams, in which this love shall enjoy full justice from beginning to end. I am planning a ‘Tristan and Isolde’.”
Methods of transformation
Transformation and sublimation is a process that can either take place spontaneously or can be accelerated and developed consciously. In the latter case, there is ample scope for the effective application of facts and laws established and rediscovered by modern dynamic psychology, and for the application of active techniques based on them. Here are some practical methods for such applications:
1. A firm control of the drive to be transformed, where care must be taken, however, to avoid any form of condemnation or fear, as this may result in a repression of the drive into the unconscious. A non-condemnation of the drive as such does not mean a lack of understanding of one’s important responsibility for the consequences, both individual and social, when the drive is not regulated. Control of the drive can be supported by simple physical means such as vigorous muscular activity and rhythmic breathing, but the most effective and at the same time higher method of controlling both the sexual and the aggressive drives is to accept and recognize that every human being is a “you” who must be respected and not an “object” or a “thing” for the satisfaction of one’s pleasures, or an “it” to be dominated and exploited. The necessity of such a basic “right relationship” to our fellow human beings, as well as our duty to understand this, has been convincingly explained and emphasized by Martin Buber (2).
2. The active liberation, development and unfolding of the various aspects of personal and spiritual love – be it love for one’s spouse, love for others starting with those closest to one and expanding to include an increasing number of people in ever wider circles and “upwards” towards God and the highest. Emphasis should be placed on the unfolding of love through understanding, cooperation, altruistic and humanitarian activities.
3. The conscious projection of one’s interest, aspiration and enthusiasm towards a creative work where all one’s energies can be used. Various techniques for promoting creative expression can be used for this purpose, such as drawing, writing, movements, etc. (Assagioli, 1).
4. The use of symbols. Symbols, consciously and unconsciously, exert a powerful attractive force on all our energies, and especially nourish the process of transformation. Jung, in his Contributions to Analytical Psychology (9), has gone so far as to state: “The symbol is the psychological machinery which transforms energy.” There is a great variety of symbols which have an anagogical (uplifting) effect which can be brought to bear on this process. Here the human models or “models” form an important group. Two types of these ideal models, different and in a way opposite, are suitable for men and women respectively. A man may visualize a hero or a human-divine being, such as Christ, or he may use the image of the ideal woman, such as Dante’s Beatrice or Madonna. Conversely, a woman may choose as a model the highest form of womanhood which her imagination can conceive, or an image of the ideal man. The influence of such “images” is expressed most beautifully in the Indian saying: “The Ganges (the holy river) purifies what is seen and touched, but the saints purify when they are merely remembered.”
A simple and effective symbol is the lotus flower, which transforms the mud and water of the pond into a beautiful and delicate flower form with beautifully colored petals. It does this through its own inherent vitality and the life-giving energy from the sun’s rays. Desoille, in his therapeutic methods of guided daydreaming (4a), has made use of symbolic upward movements to promote sublimation and transformation.
Kretschmer (10) has summarized various imagination techniques that can be used to create this sublimation process. Other anagogical symbols can be produced spontaneously in dreams and by freehand drawing. Jung and his followers (E. Harding (8), F. Wickes (13) and others) have made extensive studies of the uses of the symbols.
5. Close psychological connections with individuals or groups who have realized, or are struggling to realize, the same goal. Just as there are chemical catalysts, so there are “human catalysts,” whose influence, radiance, and the “atmosphere” they create greatly facilitate psychological transformations.
The significance and value of transformation and sublimation—not only of the sexual energies but of all other drives—should be better known and appreciated, and the methods of putting these things into operation should be much more widely used in psychotherapy, education, and self-actualization. The process of transformation and sublimation may be compared to the regulation of the water of a great river, which is to prevent repeated and recurring catastrophic floods or the formation of unhealthy swamps or marshes along the banks of the river. While a portion of the water is allowed to flow freely in its natural course, the retained water is diverted through suitable channels to suitable machines and turbines, which transform its energy into electricity, which can be used as motive power in industry and for other purposes. In the same way, the conscious or unconscious drives that create so much individual suffering and social disruption can be transformed into sources of activities that can have great human and spiritual value if they are properly controlled and channeled in the right way.
Footnote 1 : Many other psychologists have recognized the process of sublimation and have dealt with it more or less extensively. Among these psychologists are Havelock Ellis (5), McDougall (11) and Hadfield (7). A complete overview with many quotations and bibliographical references has been given by J. Trevor Davies in his book Sublimation (1947) (3). The theoretical problems and the difference of opinion raised by the nature of the subject do not prevent – in this or in other cases – an effective application of the process of psychological transformation.
Reference
1. Assagioli, R.: “Creative Expression in Education,” American Journal of Education, 1963, no.1.
2. Buber, M.: I am Thou, New York, Scriners, 1958.
3. Davies, J. Trevor: Sublimation, London, Allen & Unwin, 1947. New York, Macmillan, 1948.
4. Desoille, R.: Exploration de l’affectivé subconsciente par la méthode du réve éveillé. Sublimation et acquisitions psychologiques, Paris, D’Artrey, 1938.
4a. Desoille, T.: Le Revé évillé en psychothérapie, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1945.
5. Ellis, H.: Little Essays of Love and Virtue, New York, Doubleday, 1962
6. Ellis, Mrs,H.: Three Modern Seers: Hinton, Nietizche and Carpenter, London, Stanley, 1910.
7. Hadfield, JA: Psychology and Morals, London, Methuen, 1923. New York, McBride, 1925.
8. Harding, ME: Psychic Energy: It’s Source and its Goal, New York, Pantheon Books, 1947.
9. Jung, CG: Contributions to Analytical Psychology, New York, Harcourt Brace, 1928.
9a. Jung, CG: The Integration of the Personality, London, Kegan Paul, Trench Trubner, 1940. New York, Farrar & Rinehart, 1939.
9b. Jung, CG: Psychology and Alchemy collected Works, vol. 12, London, Kegan Paul, 1953. New York, Pantheon, 1953.
10. Kretschmer, Jr., W.: Meditative Techniques in Psychotherapy (translated by Wm. Swartley), New York, Psychosynthesis Res. Found., 1959.
11. McDougall, W.: The energies of Men, London, Methuen, 1932. New York, Scribner, 1933.
12. Sorokin, PA: The Ways and Power of Love (Types, Factors and Techniques of Moral Transformation), Boston, Beacon Press, 1954.
13. Wickes, FG: The Inner World of Man, London, Methuen, 1959. New York, H. Holt, 1948.
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