Sublimation

Sublimation is a defense that realizes the reorientation of a person’s sexual or aggressive potential, the realization of which enters into conflict with personal and social norms, into forms of creative activity acceptable and even promoted by society. This is the most adaptive of the forms of protection, as it not only reduces anxiety, but also leads to a socially approved result.
It is important that when sublimation is replaced not the object itself (unacceptable-acceptable), but methods of interaction with it.
The ability of most people to distract from the original goal and find satisfaction in an object that is permissible from a social point of view, that is, to sublimate their drives, is limited. Sublimation is often associated with desexualization, but the latter is not always a product of protection, since, normally, the emergence of "super-I" also implies desexualization.
Sublimation is a process leading to a reorientation of response from lower, reflex forms to higher, arbitrarily controlled, discharge of the energy of instincts in non-instinctive forms of behavior. It involves the redirection of energy from the object of instinctual drives to objects of another kind and the concomitant transformation of emotions.
Due to the exceptional power of the sexual in a man, his redirection to other areas leads to a significant increase in efficiency and creative impact. By sublimation, Freud explained both scientific activity and artistic creativity, which, according to Freud, are only different ways of stress relief. The result of the creative act is the discharge of accumulated emotions, which resolves the conflict or weakens it to an acceptable level. The discharge of mental tension is observed at the moment of "enlightenment." Freud wrote: "Often an exceptional sense of clarity in thoughts, a sense of enlightenment replace sexual gratification."