We may want to do no work, to steal, to injure others, to give way to despair

佛洛伊德 的

Or to have sex in very taboo and damaging ways

昇華

yet most of us do very little of this. In fact we often pour our energies into

原始的無意識深層所渴望的

worthwhile projects and go out of our way to try to be good and helpful to those around us.

可能是非常黑暗邪惡的

That we're able to do this fascinated the founder of psychoanalysis,

我們可能什麼都不想做、想偷竊、想傷人、想屈服於絕望

Sigmund Freud, who gave a special word to this ability to put our primitive,

或想要禁忌的、毀滅的性

egoistic, destructive energies to good use. He called the process sublimation in German

但多數人都沒有這麼做

Sublimierung

反而，我們把能量導引到其他更值得的事情上

It was an idea that came to freud while he was reading a well-known and charming travel book, The Harz Journey, by the 19th century

勉力去做對他人有好處或有幫助的事情

Poet Heinrich Heine. In it Heine mentioned meeting a legendary German surgeon called Johann Friedrich Deffenbaugh,

我們做這些事情的能力，讓精神分析創辦人佛洛伊德很感興趣

who'd been extremely selfish and sadistic as a boy, loving to cut off the tails of stray dogs for sheer twisted pleasure.

可以將原初、自私、毀滅的力量轉成有益處的能力

But then, as an adult, had matured into a profoundly selfless and brilliant surgeon, who'd made some pioneering

他稱此過程為「昇華」，德文為Sublimierung

discoveries in the fields of

這個概念是佛洛伊德在閱讀知名、引人的旅記「The Harz Journey」時所發想的

reconstructive and plastic surgery.

該書的作者是19世紀的詩人Heinrich Heine

Freud felt that this evolution, from a person who had sadistically used a knife to wound, to one who had nobly used it to mend,

書中提到，作者遇到一位傳奇的，名為迪芬巴夫（J. F. Deffenbaugh）的德國外科醫師

could not have been a mere coincidence and proposed that what was at play

他幼時非常自私暴虐

belong to a widespread pattern of behavior,

喜歡割下流浪狗的尾巴，享受全然變態的快樂

whereby an early harmful or shocking drive gives rise to precisely its opposite, with the strength of the negative

但長大後他成為無私、傑出的外科醫師

determining the power of the positive.

是重建與整形手術的先驅

Freud felt that this desire for compensation lays at the heart of many of the greatest achievements in the arts, politics and science.

佛洛伊德認為

So, a great police detective might at an unconscious level, be defending themselves

從「暴虐使用刀子來傷害」變成「高尚使用刀子來修復」

against certain of their own illegal wishes, and a politician committed to the plight of the poor might be

絕非偶然

sublimating an early experience of raging greed.

他認為在許多常見的行為底層，由某種特殊的運作

In an essay on Leonardo da Vinci

人類發展早期令人驚駭、破壞性的驅力，轉變為恰恰相反的力量

Freud presented the claim that da Vinci had been an extremely sexually active child, who had then

以負面的力道決定了正向的力量

sublimated his sexuality into scientific research and art. As Freud put it

佛洛伊德認為這種想要補償、修復的慾望

a forbidden desire for sexual pleasure, in this case for his mother, and then other boys

是許多偉大的藝術、政治與科學成就的核心

had turned in da Vinci into a hugely honorable and powerful general urge to know

傑出的警探可能在潛意識的層次，防禦自己的違法慾望

The theory of sublimation is so hopeful because there's so much about what we all want that proves impossible

為弱勢謀福利的政治人物

while there would be infinite reasons for anger and sterile nihilism, Freud notes our capacity to seek compensation and

可能是基於以往無盡貪婪，所做的昇華

alternative fulfillments.

在有關達文西的一篇文章中

Repeatedly in his work, Freud stressed a fact, which though it sounds absurdly obvious,

佛洛伊德認為達文西是個在性方面非常活躍的孩子

we nevertheless usually fail to give enough weight to - that all of us started out as babies. In that state

其後，他的「性特質」昇華為科學研究與藝術創作

we wanted only immediate pleasure and satisfaction.

佛洛伊德指出

Our drives in their initial forms, which are things that couldn't work out for us and that had to be painfully surrendered,

達文西首先對母親，繼而是對其他男童，有著不受允許的性慾

we believe that if we didn't get all we wanted at once it would be a catastrophe

繼而把他變成高尚、偉大、汲汲渴望求知的人

And we would die. This kind of thinking explains the shrieking and wailing of infants in a tantrum.

「昇華」的理論充滿希望，因為很多我們想要的事物是不可能實現的

We thought the world revolved just around us

我們本該陷入憤怒與了無生趣的虛無

and we couldn't be generous to others, and yet most of us turned into healthy adults

佛洛伊德卻點出我們想要尋求補償與替代實現的能力

by managing to substitute our original narcissistic aims for more ethical and fruitful alternatives.

佛洛伊德在他的論述中，重複強調一個非常明顯

Freud added soberly that we're never quite done with sublimation. We continue to be frustrated in what we really want, most often around sex,

但卻不被我們正視的事實：我們都是從小嬰兒開始的

continually we encounter people we'd love to sleep with but mustn't and yet rather than this energy going nowhere

在那個狀態下，我們只想要立即的快樂與滿足

we have an ability to use our frustration to power other things

我們驅力的原始面貌，是想要那些得不到的東西，而我們又必須痛苦的放棄

creative endeavors, scientific breakthroughs, care for the vulnerable. In Freud's eyes

我們認為如果無法瞬間得到所有想要的東西，那就是大災難、世界末日，我們會死

disappointment is inevitable. Our longings will systematically outrun reality,

這種想法可以解釋為何嬰兒會發脾氣，哭的聲嘶力竭

but sublimation remains the one hugely helpful option for us:

我們認為世界是繞著我們轉的，我們無法對他人大方，但我們大多也都成為健康的大人

under it's guidance, envy can turn into effort, wounded egoism into a capacity for gratitude and appreciation,

因為我們把原本自戀的目標，以比較倫理、比較有意義的方式取而代之

sexual rejection into a film or a novel. As

佛洛伊德清楚的補充，昇華還是不夠的

Freud saw it, psychoanalysis is the field designed to help us discover how we can use our disappointments more productively,

我們仍然會因為得不到想要的而感到挫敗，而且大部分與性有關

how we can grow up to be not embittered or shut down, but paradoxically,

我們一直遇到想與之發生性關係的人，但又不行

energized by some of our greatest underlying sorrows.

但我們不會因此被困住，反而，我們利用這個挫敗作為其他事物的動力

The good life isn't one where we get exactly what we want,

例如：創意發想、科學突破、照顧弱勢

it's one where we find fulfilling second bests and where we have the inner freedom to redirect our

佛洛伊德看來，這種失望是無可避免的

disappointments with maximal imagination, a life where we've learned, as Freud tried to show us, to sublimate well.

我們的渴望就是不見容於現實。