Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction Art and Public Morality An Ordered and Safeguarded Universe Freud and the Problem of Sublimation 1. Art and the Organization of the Self Similarities and Differences: Symptoms and Work of Art Psychoanalysis and Psychic Pain Freud's Solution: Recollecting Libido Theory The Argument in Brief: Art and Self-Organization 2. Freud and the Location of Values The Location of Values and Aesthetics Sublimation and Aesthetics The Official Theory of Perception 3. Sublimation and the Mystery of Transformation Dualism and Antinomies in Freud's Thought The Problem of Quality Returns: Infantile Sexual Aims Sublimation and the Transformation of Energy 4. Origins of Complex Behavior and Sublimation Complex Behavior and Evolution The Structure of Objects, The Structure of Representations Responding to Art: Iconic Representations Self-Understanding and Self-Represenations: Emotional Struggles, Logical Quandaries 5. Perception and Emotion in Classical Theory and Contemporary Authors Theories of Perception Helmholtz and the Physiology of Perception Perceptions, Qualities, and Affordances Contemporary Authors and The Theory of Affordances: Weiss, Langs, Stern 6. From Visual Affordances to Emotional Affordances Anal Qualities, Anal Character, Sublimation Visual Affordances as a Model of Emotional Affordances Emotional Affordances and the Drives From Aesthetics to Sublimation Emotional Affordances vs. Representations: The Structure of the Inner World Vivual Affordances, Empathy and Art 7. Emotional Affordances and Their Representations Introduction: Invisible Losses, Visible Repairs Astonishment in John Cheever Emotional Affordances in a Japanese Novel The Smelly Father in Hamlet Sublimation and Perversions in Citizen Kane Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

Reviews

"One of the most common criticisms of Freud is that his theory cannot satisfactorily account for religion or artistic creativity. Gay's revision of Freud's theory using Gibson's theory of perception allows the Freudian concept of sublimation to function in a positive way that squares with artistic creativity, religion, and common experience. Gay has made a significant contribution to psychoanalytic theory and to the understanding of human creativity." "I found this book very interesting to read. It synthesizes and discusses an amazing range of evidence from the philosophy of Kant to the physiology of perception of Helmholtz, the linguistic theory of Lacan and Ricoeur, art history, religion, etc., all applied to Freud's theory of sublimation. It is clearly the work of a mature scholar."- Harold Coward, University of Calgary "Dr. Gay's book brings together fruitfully several lines of argumentation: aesthetic theory, hermeneutics, psychoanalytical practice and criticism, and good sense. It ought to fill an important gap in the relevant literatures, but particularly in expanding our purview of Freud on sublimation and our ongoing project of determining an adequate contemporary aesthetics. The value of Gay's work is that it relates these two issues in ways that are mutually illuminating. I would have expected such a contribution from the author, whose previous books have been solid contributions. The scholarship is sound: it is in fact superlative, with a wide range of materials cited carefully." - William G. Doty, The University of Alabama "This is really a very fine book. Philosophers, psychoanalysts, students of the arts, and religious studies scholars will all find something of interest. I know of no study that re-works Freud on sublimation and art so thoroughly and makes such a commanding use of Heinz Kohut's psychoanalytic theories of the self to this end." - Don Browning, University of Chicago