Beyond Discontent: 'Sublimation' from Goethe to Lacan

(Paperback)

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According to Freud's later works, we do not really feel well or free within civilization. Our discontent never disappears, and we shall never become completely reliable members of society. Alcohol already suffices, Freud tells us, to ruin the fragile architecture of sublimations. Since Beyond the Pleasure Principle,' sublimation seems to be nothing more than a euphemism for suppressing the drives. We sublimate because we did not get or were not allowed to have what we actually' wanted. Is sublimation a mere surrogate or perhaps even the name psychoanalysis found for theoria' in the twentieth century With Freud as its pivot, Goebel provides an intellectual history of sublimation, which also serves as an introduction to other key ideas associated with the authors discussed, such as Schopenhauer's philosophy of music, the will to power in Nietzsche, the structure of Freudian psychoanalysis, Adorno's concept of modern art, or Lacanian ethics. In examining both its prehistory and reception, Goebel argues that sublimation can be reconsidered as the road toward an individual and social life beyond discontent.

Reviews

In this highly sophisticated and kaleidoscopic account, Eckart Goebel offers a penetrating study of a topic that, despite its ubiquity, has hitherto failed to receive a sustained and critical analysis: sublimation.' With theoretical astuteness and literary elegance, philosophical and literary works are brought into fascinating and reciprocally illuminating conversation. * John T. Hamilton, Professor of Comparative Literature, Chair 2011-2012, Harvard University, USA *
It is good news that we finally have a book on the concept of sublimation, but we are particularly fortunate to have gotten such a smart, profound, and moving one. Beyond Discontent is much more than the exploration of a Freudian concept it is an extraordinarily successful study in the history of a figure of thought central to all theories of civilization. * Silke-Maria Weineck, Associate Professor of German and Chair of Comparative Literature, University of Michigan, USA *
Eckhart Goebel offers lucid and illuminating explorations of the concept of sublimation [showing] that the notion of sublimation is not so much a single doctrine as a continuing debate on the relationship between the self and nature, the individual and civilization This review cannot do justice to the richness of Beyond Discontent. Throughout, Goebels treatment is thorough without being pedantic, philosophically and theoretically sophisticated without being obscure. Both elegant and accessible, it is the summary and starting point for anyone who would reflect a little longer on the complex and ubiquitous doctrine of sublimation. * Goethe Yearbook (Thomas L. Cooksey, Armstrong Atlantic State University, USA) *
Goebel (German studies, New York Univ.) reframes a central tenet of Freudian thought, sublimation, to tell an alternative story of modern intellectual history and thought. ... Particularly enlightening is the third chapter on Nietzsche and his methodical use of sublimation and its three-dimensionality (culture, individual psychology, philosophy), which Goebel invokes to reexamine central concepts of Nietzsche's thought. Chapter 6, "The Sublimation of Nature: Theodor W. Adorno," offers a refreshing perspective on critical theory ... making this an enjoyable read in cultural theory even for those less interested in sublimation. ... This is a book for intellectual historians as well as practitioners of psychoanalysis. * Choice *

Author Bio

Eckart Goebel is Professor of German and Comparative Literature, University of Tbingen, Germany. He is the author of Konstellation und Existenz. Kritik der Geschichte um 1930: Studien zu Heidegger, Benjamin, Jahnn und Musil (1996), Am Ufer der zweiten Welt. Jean Pauls "Poetische Landschaftsmalerei" (1999), Der engagierte Solitr. Die Gewinnung des Begriffs Einsamkeit aus der Phnomenologie der Liebe im Frhwerk Jean-Paul Sartres (2001), Charis und Charisma. Grazie und Gewalt von Winckelmann bis Heidegger (2006) and Jenseits des Unbehagens. Sublimierung von Goethe bis Lacan (2009). He serves on the Editorial Board of Oxford German Studies. James C. Wagner is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of German at New York University, USA.