jan cohn and thomas h. miles -- the sublime- in alchemy, aesthetics and psychoanalysis
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7/25/2019 Jan Cohn and Thomas H. Miles -- The Sublime- In Alchemy, Aesthetics and Psychoanalysis
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The Sublime: In Alchemy, Aesthetics and PsychoanalysisAuthor(s): Jan Cohn and Thomas H. MilesReviewed work(s):Source: Modern Philology, Vol. 74, No. 3 (Feb., 1977), pp. 289-304Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/437116.
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7/25/2019 Jan Cohn and Thomas H. Miles -- The Sublime- In Alchemy, Aesthetics and Psychoanalysis
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The
Sublime: n
Alchemy,
esthetics
nd
Psychoanalysis
Jan
Cohn
and
Thomas H. Miles
...
"The.
ublime"
In
the
old
sense.
Wrong
rom
he
tart-
[EZRA OUND,
Hugh
Selwyn
Mauberley"]
A
layman's
lexicon
of
psychoanalytic
ermswill
ordinarily
nclude
sublimation
and
subliminal.
he
layman
will
recognize
hat both
words
are
related
to
sublime
and will
sense
that
sublimation-like
the
word sublime-has
something
o
do
with
"up,"
and that
subliminal,
oddly,
has
something
o do
with
"down"-
unlike the
word
sublime.
Sublimation
has a
number
of
definitions,
enerally
denoting
ither
levation to a
higher
tate
or
rank,
or
transmutationnto
a
higher
or
purer
condition;
similar
meanings
attach
to sublime:
that
which s
lofty
r
elevated.Subliminal, n theotherhand, was introducedntoEnglish n thelate
nineteenth
entury
o
translate
he
German
term
unter
der Schwelle:
below
the
threshold
of consciousness).
The
standard
tymologies
or ublime
nd
subliminal
reinforce he
absolute
contradiction f
their
meaning
while
failing
o
clarify
hat
contradiction.
According
to the
OxfordEnglish Dictionary,'
both
words
derive
from
ub-
plus
limin
alternately imen).
But in the
case
of
subliminal,
he
Latin
roots
form
below
the
threshold,"while,
n the
case of sublime
nd
all its deriva-
tives,
the
Latin
roots,
qualified
with
a
"probably," give
us
"up
to the
lintel."
From
this
we are
led
to
infernot
only
that
the
Romans
had the
same
term
for
lintel
nd
threshold
ut
also that the
civilizationwhich nvented
he arch
had one
wordto mean bothdown nd up.
Our
investigations
nto the
etymologies
of
words derived
from
sub-
and
limin
limen)
have
revealed
alternative
ources for these words
and,
in
tracing
the
uses of
sublime n
all
its
forms,
we
have
discoveredreflections
f
significant
shifts
n
cultural
ttitudes rom he
fifteenth
entury
o
the
present.
I
sublime-derivationrom
uper
imas:
"above
the
slimeor
mud
of
this
world."2
Tracing
the
etymology
of sublime
and
its derivatives
through
classical
Indo-European
languages,
we
discovereddifficultiesot
only
with he
compound
word
but
also with
each of
its
component
roots,
sub- and lim-.
The
American
Heritage
Dictionary,
or
example,
gives
imen
or
the
source
of
sublime
nd
limin
(an
alternative
pelling
for
imen)
forthe
source
of
subliminal.
imen s
defined s
"threshold"
nd
is
said to
be akin
to
limes,
boundary"
or
"limit,"particularly
boundary
between
fields.
Limen further
s said to
be
"connected"
with
limus,
1/See
Appendix
or
full
istof
dictionaries eferredo.
2/James eattie,Dissertations oraland CriticalLondon, 1783),p. 606,quotedin SamuelH.
Monk,
The
Sublime:A
Study
f
Critical
heories
n
XVIII-Centuryngland New
York,
1935),
p.
129.
Monk
finds
Beattie's
ontribution
chiefly
memorable"
or its
etymological
berra-
tions."
289
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290
Modern
Philology
February 1977)
"sidelong,"
with
particular
eference
o
the
eyes. Happily,
unattachedto
any
of
the
bove is
limus,
slime or
mud."
Nevertheless,
ne is
leftwith
n
uncomfortable
feeling
of
having
discovered
a
multidimensional
word,
a kind of Einsteinian
Latin
root,
which means
not
only
horizontal
beams
marking
vertical
definitions
(threshold
nd
lintel)
but
spatial,
that
is,
horizontal,
borders
as
well
(boundary
or
limit) nd,
to
cap
this,
ven the
diagonal
line
sidelong
or
oblique).
Partridge,
n
Origins:
A
Short
Etymological
Dictionary
f
Modern
English,
gives
as
sources for ublimewords the
related
words
limes
boundary,
road)
and
limen
(threshold),
with
limus-liquis
the
source of
oblique,
hence
sidelong).
Limen,
ccording
o
Partridge,
means
both intel nd
threshold;
he
argues
further
that
intel tself
erives rom
imitellus,
he
diminutive
f
imes,
hus intellus
lintel.
Specifically,
hen,
for ubliminal e
posits
"below the
threshold,"
ut for
sublime,
he offers wo possibilities: 1) to come up fromunderthethreshold, r (2) from
liquis-limus,
o
climb a
steep slope.
With the
suggested
OED
etymology-above
the intel-
we
now have three
possibilities.
Other
standard
etymological
dictionaries
vary
in their definitions
f
the
lim-
morpheme
n
sublime
words. Skeat admits
that
sublime is
a "difficult"
word
etymologically.
His
tentative olution is
that
it
meant
passing
under
the
lintel
of
a
door,
hence
reaching up
to the lintel
limis-limen).
rom
the idea of
reachingup,
Skeat
suggests
n extensionof
meaning
to tall or
high.
Onions,
in
the
Oxford
Dictionary
of
English Etymology, upplies
sublimis-us
s the Latin
root
of sublime
nd sees the imis-us lement as
"variously
dentified"
with
limen
(threshold) nd limus oblique). The same entryhandles subliminal s based on
the
Latin
sub-
plus
limin-limen
threshold).
Klein's
Comprehensive tymological
Dictionary
f
the
English
anguage
dentifiesublime s sub-
plus
imen
with literal
meaning
of
"(coming) up
to
below
the intel."
["Been
down
so
long,
t feels ike
up
to me"
?]
Subliminal s also seen as made
up
of
sub-
plus
limen
threshold),
"probably
related to" limes
boundary).
Harper's
Latin
Dictionarygives
the
same three Latin
roots: limus
side),
limes
cross-boundary oad),
and limen
a crosspiece
t
the
top
or at
the
bottom:
hence intel r
threshold).
These are related o Greek
roots,
but there s
no one-to-
one
correlation.Limus is seen
as akin to
AEXptos
slanting),
AE'Xpt
crosswise),
and Aoo'dsslantingor crosswise).Limen is relatedonly to A4Xptsnd Ao'ds.
Limes
finds
cognate solely
n
AE'Xpts.3
or words
composed
of
sub-
plus
any
of
the lim-
roots,
Harper's
gives
several
etymologies:
ub.
limo-to lift
up
or
raise
on
high;
sub.
lime-lofty,
exalted;
sub. limis
or
-us)-elevated, uplifted;
with
a
tentative
up
to
the
lintel";
sub. limen-related to
the
hanging
up
of slaves
for
punishment.
These
etymologies,
whether
nglish
or
Latin,
accept
the
morpheme
ub-as
3/The
phonological similarity
between
Latin
limus,
limes
and
Greek
AXptog,
AXPtS>
and
Aoeds
may
seem
slight.
okorny,
owever,
inds heir
ources
n
Indo-European
oots
Uli-
and
Ji-,
eq-,bothwithmeaningsfbending rcrooked.Under di-,hegives imusschiefoblique]) nd
limes
Querweg
[oblique direction]),
tc.
(Limen,
also
included,
s translated
Tiirschwelle
[threshold].)
nder
ti-,
eq-
he cites
A'Xplog
schief,
uer oblique]),
AEXptL
quer),
and
AoSdo',
(schriig
diagonal];
also
verbogen
hidden, bscure],
verrenkt
dislocated]) JuliusPokorny,
Indogermanisches
Etymologisches Worterbuch,
pts.
in 3
vols.
[Bern,
1959],
1:1).
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Cohn and
Miles/The
Sublime
291
meaning
ither
up"
or
"down,"
depending
on
whether ne
selects the
"lintel"
or
"threshold"
ource
for
imen-limis.While a
significant
umber f Latin
words,
formedwith
ub-, ertainly
ave
the
meaning
f a
movement
pward,
the
originalintention s
always
directed t the
concept
of a
change
in
a
position
from
below
to
above:
sublevo-to
raise
up;
subduco--to
ift
p;
subeo-to
come
up;
subvecto-
to
bringup.
A careless
definition f sub-
can
falsely
ndicate a
primary
meaning
of
"up"
or
"above"
in
compound
words.
The same
condition
applies
to
the
Sanskrit
pa
and
tipari,
he
first
ariously
defined
s
down,
up,
under,
nd
above;
the
second as
above and
over.
Greek,
on the
other
hand,
maintains
lear
distinc-
tions
between
the
cognate
words
67TOd
nd
6irrp;
rdT
means
under
and
beneath,
rrEp
ver
and
beyond.
The
fullest
discussion of the
Indo-European
roots
for
"up"
and
"down"
appears
in
Ernout and Meillet,Dictionnairetymologiquee la langue atine.The
primary
meaning
of
sub-
s
given
as under or at the
bottom
of,
and the
apparent
relation o
super-
n
derivatives
s
explained
as
a movement
rom
below to
above,
as
surgo--to
raise,
to
bring
o a
standing
osition
from elow.
Ernout and
Meillet
insist
that
the
opposition
of
meaning
between
sub-super
nd their
cognates
is
Indo-European
in
date,
extending
nto
rish,
Greek,
and
Gothic.4
Ernout nd
Meillet lso examine
with
great
are the
group
of
words onsidered
as
possible
sources for
sublime:
imen,
imes,
nd
limus.Limus has no
sure
ety-
mology,
means
sidelong
or
oblique,
and has
no clear
connection
with
imes
or
limen.
Limen
s
cited both
as limen
nferum
nd as limen
uperum,
ence
a
thres-
hold or lintel.Limes, a road bordering fieldand delimitingt, was confused
with imen
not
in
Latin
but
in
the
Romance
languages.
By
popular
etymology,
limen lso
became
connected
with
imus-limis. rnout
and
Meillet insist
on the
original
distinction
mong
the three
words,
each of
which had a
discrete rea of
meaning.
Since
Latin
words
constructed
ut
of
sub-
plus
im-
predate
he classical
period,
it
is safe to
assume that
sublimo and
related
words
predate
the
post-
classical
confusionof
the
three
roots.
The
etymological
onfusion
urrounding
ublime,
herefore,
epends
on
the
modern
confusion
surrounding
the
lim-
roots;
in
discussing
sublime
itself,
Ernout and Meillet
dismiss
any
etymologies
dependent
on
postclassical
con-
fusion.The derivation rom ub. imen hey ee as erroneous, ince tis based on a
confusion
of the three
roots.
In
short,
iting
he
etymology
f
Festus for
"up
to
the
lintel,"
they
reject
this
explanation
as
founded
on
a
pun.
The
etymological
solution
of
Ernout
and
Meillet
turns
nstead
to
limus-limis
oblique)
and
empha-
sizes the careful
working
with
sub-,
as
moving upward
froma
position
below:
hence,
rising diagonally,
or more
specifically
rom below to
above,
along
a
diagonal
path.
One
might uppose
that an
Indo-European root,
lim-
n
Latin
and
A'X-
in
Greek,
had a
general
meaning
f some kind of
lateral or
diagonal
line n
contrast
with a
vertical.This
might
well
explain
the
cross-references
etween
the
Greek
4/See
A. Ernout and A.
Meillet,
Dictionnaire
etymologique
de
la
langue
latine,
histoire des
mots,
4th
d.
(Paris,
1967),
for
full
discussion f
the
ub-super
istinction
n
Indo-European
angu-
ages
and for heir
reatmentf
nitial -
in
the talic
anguages.
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292
Modern
Philology
February 1977)
and
the Latin words cited
n
Harper's
and
might
ccount
forthe
general
relation-
ship
n
meaning
hat
he
three atin wordshave
with ne another. uch
a
similarity
is
clearly
marked
n the imes-limen
air,
with the first
meaning piece
of
wood
or stone
placed
horizontally
nd thesecond a horizontal
boundary
ndicated
by
some
sort
of
physical
means.
The connection between
diagonal
and
horizontal
markers
r lines
may
be
less
immediate,
but
in the
Greek
Aofds
oth
meanings
are inherent.
Nevertheless,
rnout
and
Meillet
present
a
clear
case
for
the
distinction
among
these words
in
Latin;
their
etymology
or
sublime,
while
it dilutes
the
moral
imperative
f
"up
from
the slime" and
the moral threat
of slaves
hung
from
intels,
voids
the
obvious
confusion
of sub
with
super
nsisted
on
by
the
standard
tymology,
above
the
intel."5
II
...
ab
ipso
mortisimite-from
d0a6es
pirscwalde
wa=s
.cegende).6
The
Anglo-Saxons,
not
yet
the
proficient
word
borrowers
the
English
would
later
become,
chose
to translate ll
limen-limis ords
directly
nto
Old
English
roots
and
compounds.
Support
for Ernout-Meillet's
contention
that
confusion
among
the three
roots-lnmen,
limes, limus-postdated
the
Latin
period
and
can
be
attributed
to the later
period
of the
development
of
the
Romance
languages
comes from
vidence
n the
Anglo-Saxon
translations
f imen
and limis limes). There is no confusionbetweenthese words in Anglo-Saxon
glosses,
xcept
n the one
case
where
he West Saxon
translator
f Bede
moved
n
the
direction
f
metaphor
by
rendering
mortis
imite
s
birscwalde.
n all other
instances,
imen
is
understood
as
threshold-herexwold,
perscolde,
precswale,
or as
lintel-overslaye, oferdyre,
dde duru.
Limis is
understood
as
boundary
or
limit:
atsidgerif,
afudland.
Wright-Wiilcher,
t
is
worth
noting,
ontains
several
glosses
n which
he
Anglo-Saxon
wordfor
intel
ranslates
he
Latin
superliminare,
further
vidence,
f
uch
were
necessary,
hat
the Romans at
least did
not
confuse
sub and
super.
The sublime
words
themselves
first ntered
French,
as
they
would
enter
English,throughbooks of alchemy.The Dictionnairede I'acadimie frangaise,
1694,
cites
sublimation,
ublime,
nd
sublimer,
ll
of
which
re entered
s "termes
de
chymie."
Nevertheless,
ittr6 ites
seventeenth-century
ses
of sublime
n the
figurative
ense
in Corneille
and
Bossuet.
The Dictionnaire
tymologique
e
la
languefrangaise
ites
an
example
as
early
s
1212,
with he
meaning
f thatwhich
is
placed
veryhigh.
French must
also have
developed
the rhetorical
meaning
of
the
sublime
as the
grand
style,predating
Boileau who
is careful
to
distinguish
between
the
rhetorical
ense and
the
new emotional-aesthetic
meaning
he
gives
to sublime
n
his translation
f
Longinus.
5/One
wonders
why
he
meaning
f
elevation
nd loftiness
arried
n
the
word ublime hould
be
developed
from
root
with the
meaning
f
diagonal,
rather han
from more
dramatic
vertical
enotation;
his
problem
emains
nsolved.
6/Bede,
cclesiastic
History,
ETS,
nos.
95-96
London, 1890),
p.
398;
cited
n
OED.
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Cohn
and
Miles/The
Sublime
293
German,
on
the
other
hand,
did not
experience
the
extension of
the
(al)chemical
meaning
of
sublime
nto
figurative
ses.
Modern
English-German
dictionaries ike
Cassell
do
show
sublim-
ources
n
chemical
terms:
das
Sublimat,
sublimiert,
ublimieren,
ut all aesthetic
nd
figurative
erminology
s translated
into
native
words:
erhaben,
erhihen,
veredeln.
Benecke
(Mittelhochdeutsches
Wdrterbuch)
ncludes
no sublim-words.
The New Muret-Sanders
gives
sublim-
words
in German
for
psychological
terms,
as sublimieren
or sublimate and
Sublimierung
or
sublimation,
with a
figurative
xtension
for
each.
However,
sublime
ppears
as erhaben
subst.
das
Erhabene),
hoch, tc.,
nd
the
psychological
term
ubliminal
s
unterbewusst
nd
unterschwellige.
The
Grimmsche
Worterbuch
ites
erhaben,
rhdhen,
tc.,
as translations
or
sublime
and
adds
auszerordentlich
nd
k6stlich
o this list.
It
also
gives
a few
examplesin whichthe Latin word is adopted into German withfigurativexten-
sion and
one
example
of
a
metaphoric
se from ate
Middle
High
German,
abeled
as
"rare."
The
context
s
religious
nd the
figurative
motif
lchemical:
hilff
mirden
tempel
werden
durch
wehen nd baliern
mit
arben
ublimiern
usz
diner
lchimy.
[H.
v.
SACHSENHEIM,
235,
it.
ver.]'
The
few
other
examples
of sublim-
words taken
into
German
in
the
Latin form
are found
n
citations
from
Goethe, Schopenhauer,
nd Nietzsche
and
represent
extraordinary
ses
of
sublime,
onfined
to aesthetic
or
philosophical
contexts.8
The
resistance
f German
to
the
adoption
of the
foreign
word sublime
for
any
but
a
chemical
vocabulary
s evidenced
n the German translations
f
Longi-
nus's
rTEpt
Yoovs,
translations
that
postdate
Boileau's
1674
Traite
du
sublime.
These
include
Verhandeling
ver de Verheventheitn
Deftigheit
es
Styls
...
(Amsterdam,
1719); Longin
vom
Erhabenen ..
(Leipzig,
1781);
Dionysios
oder
Longinos,
eberdas
Erhabene
..
(Kempton,
1895).
Before
Boileau,
English,
oo,
found
words other
than sublime
to translate
Longinus's
title,
but
afterBoileau
no
English
title ver
appeared
without
he word
sublime.9
7/We
have
followed,
ere nd
elsewhere,
he
concise itation orm sed
n
Grimm nd the
OED.
Interested eaders
an of course
pursue
the referencesurther
hrough
hose
major
sources.
8/One
uch
example
from
Grimm:
. ..
mag
hier und da das urtheil nd der
geschmack
er
einzelnen
elbstfeiner
nd sublimirter
eworden
ein.
[...
here and there
he
udgment
nd
taste
of
a
single
erson
may
becomefiner nd more
ublime"] Nietzsche,
895;
1:
318).
9/See
W.
Rhys
Roberts,
Bibliographical
Appendix,"
n
Longinus
n
the Sublime
Cambridge,
1907)
for
full ist f translations
f
Longinus
efore 900.
There
were wo
English
ranslations
before
Boileau's
work: John
Hall,
Of
the
Height f Eloquence
1622),
and John
Pulteney, f
the
Loftiness
f
Elegancy
of
Speech 1680).
After
Boileau,
all
English
titlesused the
word
sublime:
Anon.,
An
Essay
on the Sublime ...
(1698);
Welsted,
The Works
of
Dionysius
Longinus
on
the Sublime
...
(1712);
W.
Smith,
Dionysius Longinus
on
the Sublime
...
(1739);
Anon.,
A
Literal Translationof Longinus" Of theSublime" (182 1); Anon., Longinus on the Sublime (1830);
W.
T.
Spurdens,
Longinus
on the
Sublime
...
(1836);
D.
B.
Hickie,
Dionysius Longinus
on
the
Sublime
...
(1838);
T.
R.
R.
Stebbing,
Longinus
on the Sublime
...
(1867);
H.
A.
Giles,
Longinus,
an
Essay
on
the Sublime
...
(1870); Henry Morley, Longinus
on the Sublime
(1889);
H.
L.
Havell,
Longinus
on
the
Sublime
(1890).
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1977)
III
Elevate
hat
ripode;
ublimate
hat
ipkin;
lixate
our
ntimonie.10
In the ate Middle
English period,
the
translation f
alchemical
works from
Latin
into the
vernacular aw
the
first
ppearance
in
English
of
sublime
nd its
derivatives,
ornow
the
Germanic radition
f
translating
nd
compounding
with
native roots had been weakened
by
the new
English
trend toward
borrowing.
Furthermore,
he
arge percentage
f
borrowed
French words n the
vocabulary
of ate Middle
English
made Latin
words farfrom
oreign;
word
ike ublimation
would
appear
much
the
same
in
French,
Latin,
or in
the
Middle
English Anglo-
French
vocabulary.
Works
like
the
Quinte
Essence
introduced
hese words
into
English:
"Take
pe
best
wiyn
pat
3e may
fynde,
f
3e
be of
power,
and if
3e
be
ri3t
pore,panne takecorruptwiyn,pat is, rotyn, f a watery umour,but not egre,
pat
is
sour,
for
pe
quint
ssencia
perof
s
naturaly
ncorruptible,
e
which
3e
schal
drawe out
by sublymacioun.""1
uch medieval
sources
provide
two
legacies
for
later
English
uses of sublime.One of
these
s
the
continueduse of these words
n
scientific
erminology.
he
second is the
connection of
sublimationwith
related
alchemical terms nd
operations:
fire, iolence,
nd
pure
essence;
these terms nd
attributeswill
develop
most
fully
n
the
metaphorical
pplication
of
sublime.
From the
Latin verb
sublimare
to elevate)
and its
substantive
orm ubli-
matio,
English
borrowed
the
noun
sublimation nd
the
verb
to
sublime.Gower
(1390)
uses the
substantive
for the
(al)chemical
action
of
subliming,
that
is,
purifying;nd the same formand same meaning occur today. Meaning to
subject
to heat in
order
to
refine,
he
verb
form
ppears
in
Chaucer's Canon's
Yeoman's
Tale.
Although
this
form continues to
appear
sporadically,
he verb
sublimate
ften
replaces
it. Other
verb
formshad
short
ives;
sublimize xisted
briefly
n the
early
nineteenth
entury,
nd
a
noun-form
ublimification
late
eighteenth
entury) uggests
hat
a
verb
sublimifymight
lso
have existed.
Derivativesof sublime
moved
gradually
out
of the
province
of
alchemy
nto
other
developing
sciences. In the
sixteenth
century,
the
nouns
sublimatum,
sublimate,
nd
sublimy
re
all
used
to
mean
mercury
orrosive
sublimate,
the
product
of
refining. y
the seventeeth
entury,
ublime
appears
as a
medical
term ndicating ifficultespiration.n theeighteenthentury,he newscienceof
geology dopted
sublime o mean
higher
nd more
problematical.
n
this
science,
sublimate
ppears
as a termfor
a mineral
deposit, by
analogy
to
the
alchemical
process:
minerals
n
a
vapor state,
thrown
up
from
he
interior
f
the
earth,
re
deposited
near the earth's
surface
OED).
The
nineteenth
entury
pplies
the
term
ublime
o
anatomy
n
describing
hose
muscles which ie
near the
surface.
In
the ate nineteenth nd
twentieth
enturies,
he newest
cience,
psychoanalysis,
adopted
the
word
sublimation or its own
uses and added the
neologism
sub-
liminal.
10/Brathwaite,
himzyies,
etall-man
London,
1631);
cited
n
OED.
11/The
Book
of
Quinte
Essence,
or
the
Fifth
Being,
That Is to
Say,
Man's Heaven
(c.
1460-70),
ed.
Frederick
. Furnivall
London, 1866),
p.
4.
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About
fifty
ears
after
he
verb sublime nd the
noun
sublimation
ppeared
in
English
in
an
alchemical
context,
these
words
began
to
develop figurative
meanings.
n the middle
of thefifteenth
entury,
ublimation
ppeared
as elevation
to
high
rank
i.e., promotion)
nd sublimate
s
raised or
exalted:
"This man
with
sedicious
knytis
was sublimat
n the
empire"
(Capgrave,
Chronicles,Rolls,
93;
cited n
OED).
It seems
unlikely
hat these termshad as
yet
any
metaphysical
r
spiritual
onnotation,
or,
ven
n
the
sixteenth
entury
ublimate till
means
quite
specifically
o honor or
raise
to
a
high place. By
the
end of the sixteenth
entury
and into the
seventeenth,
wide
connotationalfield
pened
for
he ublimewords.
Donne's uses of
these
words
suggest
his
sense
of
their
trong
lchemical flavor:
"To
all
whom loves
subliming
ire nvades"
("Valediction
of
the
Booke,"
line
13;
cited
n
OED).
Beaumont
uses the
same
figure:
So sublimate
nd
so
refining
as
thatFire,that all the Gold it turn'dto Dross" (Psyche,X, xiv; cited n OED).
The
inclusion
of
sublime
n
Cawdrey's
Table
Alphabeticall.
.
of
Hard
Vsual
English
Wordes
1604)
proves
that it
remained
a
"hard"
word;
his
definitions
not
alchemical
but
metaphoric:
to
set on
high
or lift
up. Cawdrey
reflectswhat
must have been
the
general comprehension
of
the
word,
ignoring
ts
atypical
application
in
The
Faerie
Queene,
a
decade
earlier,
where
Spenser
used
it to
mean
haughty
nd
proud,
with
pejoration.
Shortly
fter
Cawdrey's
citation
f
the
word,
ts
meaning
xpanded,
until n
the
seventeenth
entury
tcame
to
be
applied
to
height in
the sense
of
the
acme),
to
flight,
nd to architecture ith he
pecific
meaning
of loftiness nd
perhaps
of
grandeur.
But themodernmeaningsof sublimedeveloped not fromthese connota-
tions
but
from
ts more
piritual
nd
metaphysical ense,
s
used
n the
eventeenth
century.
rom the
alchemical
meanings
of
purification
nd from he
idea, again
from
lchemy,
of
elevation,
came
religious
and secular
meanings
of
purity
nd
loftiness.
ven as
early
s the end of the fifteenth
entury
we
can find:
"O
spowse
of Criste
immaculate,
Aboue
alle
aungellis
sublimate"
Ryman,
Poems,
VI,
7;
cited
in
OED).
Further,
the
religious
experience
tself
could sublimate: "Let
your
thoughts
e
sublimed
by
the
spirit
f
God"
(Benson,
Sermon
7
May,
1593;
1609;
cited
in
OED).
And the
rites nd sacraments
f the
hurch
were
hemselves
"sublimed":
"[Jesus]
hallowed
marriage.
.
having
new ublim'd
t
bymaking
t
a
Sacramentalrepresentmentf theunion of Christ nd .
..
thechurch" J. Taylor,
Gt.
Examp.
II,
x, 1649;
cited
n
OED).
In
these
theological
pplications
and
their
derivative orms
an be found
the
first
ndicationof the
confusion
bout
where
the sublime
ay
and
what the
ct
of sublimation
ffected;
hat
s,
whether
ublima-
tion
s
a state or a
process
and
whether t
is
a
property
f the
defined
bject
or of
the
evolving
ubject.
Beyond
the
religious
uses of the word and the
general seventeenth-century
meaning
f
the
ofty
nd
purified,
e
find n this
period
thefirst
elation
between
sublime
nd the
art
of rhetoric: he
expression
f
ofty
deas in an
elevatedmanner.
The
OED
cites
the first
hetorical se
of
the
word in
1586,
the
point
at which
sublimeenters he realm of aesthetics n English.By the eighteenthentury he
uses of
sublime n aesthetics
revealed
the same
confusion that the
theological
applications
had shown
in
the
seventeenth.While
the
sublime
resided first n
the
style
n which
elevated
ideas were
expressed,
t
eventually
ame to mean the
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elevated deas themselves.
his
shift
ccomplished,
t
was
not
difficulto
find
he
source
of such
loftiness
ot
only
n
art
but
in
nature.
The most
mportant
ltera-
tion of
meaning, owever,
ccurs
when the ublime
s
used
byEnglish
critics n the
Longinian
sense
to
describenot theexternal ause
of
a
particular
esthetic
tate
in
the
beholder,
but
that
state
itself;
the sublime
has moved
from
he
object
to
the
subject.
Contemporary olloquial
usage
of
sublime
represents
debased
version of
the earlier aesthetic use.
There
are,
however,
n
the
nineteenth
entury
few
additional
developments.
With
Hardy,
particularly
nd
perhaps peculiarly,
sublimations used
to indicate
an ecstatic
state
of
mind.
With
pejorative ntent,
the
verb
ublimate
may
mean a
refinementnto
nonexistence:
While he
... sub-
limated
the
popular
worship
nto a harmless
ymbolism" Lecky,
Europ.
Mor.
I,
342, 1869; cited n OED).
To
summarize
the
complicated
history
of
sublime and
its
derivatives,
he
word entered
English
at the
end
of
the fourteenth
entury
with
a
specific
l-
chemical
meaning
and remained available for new
sciences
as
they developed.
In the middle of the fifteenth
entury
figurative
se
appeared
with
generalized
meaning
f
ofty
nd
with
pecific
pplications
o
theology
nd
rhetoric-aesthetics.
Currently,
he
aesthetic
use
of
the word sublime s limited
primarily
o discussions
of literature nd criticism
rom he classical and
pre-Romantic
eriods.
Sublima-
tion
has a
contemporarymeaning
n
the
terminology
f
psychoanalysis.
here
has,
furthermore,
een
a
general tendency
rom
he
eighteenth entury
n to
control
thekinds offunctional hift hat ublime nd itsderivativesrecapable of under-
going.
Sublime
has lost ts verb
function, nd,
as
a
result,
words
such
as
subliming
and sublimed
have
disappeared.
Sublimate exists
as a
noun
with a
specialized
scientific
meaning
and
has
lost
its
participial
force.
Finally,
such whimsical
constructions
s
sublimary,
ublimator,
ublimification,ublimy,
nd
sublimish
have
disappeared.
AfterBoileau's
publication
of Traits du sublime
1674),
sublime
ssumed a
new
cultural
mportance
n
English.
In the
eighteenth
nd
nineteenth
enturies,
the
"sublime"-words
became vehicles
for
aesthetic nd
philosophical
theories,
o
that
n
an
author's
use of
these
words
re
revealed
ignificant
ultural
ssumptions.
From Addison and Burketo theEnglish translations f Kant and Freud, the
changing
onnotations
of sublime
mirrorman's
gradual rejection
f
the
marvel-
ous
hope
that self-love nd
social are
the
same.
IV
Er besteht
arin,
ass
die
Sexualbestrebung
hr
uf Partiallust
der
Fortpflanzungslust
erichtetes
iel
aufgibt
nd
ein
anderes
nnimmt,
welches
enetisch
it em
ufgegebenen
usammenhingt,
ber
elbst
nicht
mehr
exuell,
ondern ozial
genannt
erdenmuss.
Wir
heissen
denProzess
,Sublimierung",
obei
wir ns
der
llgemeinen
chitzungfiigen,welche oziale Ziele
hSher
tellt ls die im Grunde elbst-
silchtigen
exuellen.
[Sublimation]
onsists
n the
sexual
trend
bandoning
ts
aim
of
obtaining
component
r a
reproductiveleasure
nd
taking
n
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anotherwhich s related
enerically
o the
bandoned
ne but s tself
no
longer
exual
nd
must e describeds
social.
We
call
this
rocess
"Sublimation,"
n
accordance
with he
general
stimate
hat
places
social aimshigherhanthesexualones,which re at bottom elf-
interested.
Sigmund
reud,
Some
Thoughts
n
Development
nd
Regression-Aetiology"]
2
In the "Preface" to Traitedu
sublime,
Boileau
insists hat
Longinus
had not
intended
by
"sublime" what the orators called
the
"sublime
style"
but "cet
extraordinaire
t
ce merveilleux
ui frappe
dans
le
discours,
et
qui
fait
qu'un
ouvrage
enl6ve,
ravit,
transporte."13
The
extraordinary
nd marvelous which
ravishes,
elevates,
and
transports
need not
be
found
in
anything tylistically
grand;
on
the
contrary,
t
may
exist
n a
single
thought,
single
figure,
single
turn
of
phrase.
Boileau's work would
carry
nto
English
two
significantspects
of the
word sublime tself:
he
sense that
the
sublime
need not and
indeed
should
not
reside n a
deliberately rand style,
nd
the
implication
hat
the
measure
of
the
sublime would
lie in
the
effect
t
had on an audience.
In
The Sublime:
A
Study
of
Critical Theories
n
XVIII-Century England,
Samuel Monk has traced
the
development
n
English
of
the criticaluses
of
the
word
sublime;
he has shown
how the
termmoved
from label for a
rhetorical
device to one for n aesthetic
xperience.
The sources
of the
sublime,
lso traced
by
Monk,
change
from
works
of art
to
nature and
at last to the mind tself.
t
becomes
possible
to
conceive of
the
sublimeas
a
mental,
esthetic,
sychological
state-induced by hemind ndexperienced y hemind.Kantsumsthisprocessup
in The
Critique
f JudgmentSecond
Book.
"Analytic
of
the
Sublime"):
"...
.
dass
die wahre
Erhabenheitnur
m
Gemuithe
es
Urtheilenden,
icht n
dem Naturob-
jecte,
dessen
Beurtheilung
iese
Stimmung
desselben
veranlasst,
mtisse
gesucht
werden"
"....
true
sublimity
must
be
sought only
in the mind
of
the
udging
Subject,
and not n the
Object
of
nature
hat
occasions
this ttitude
y
theestimate
formed f
it").14
It
is
unnecessary
o
recapitulate
Monk's
thorough
tudy.
n
sum,
the
English
tradition ame to
distinguish
he
sublime
first rom
he
beautiful
nd second
from
things
hat
give
pleasure.
Subsequently,
he
ublime
xperience
ecame
associated
withthingspainful,demanding,or frustrating. s the sublime lost the earlier
sense of
simple
sensuous
and aesthetic
satisfaction,
t
became
more
and more
closely
allied with
the will
and
with
moral
imperatives, inally
ntering
he field
of
psychoanalysis,
t
which
point
the ultimate
conception
of
the
sublime
has
moved
away
from
an
experience
meaningful nly
to
the
individual
toward one
significant
or the
community
s a whole.
By considering
he
treatments
f the
12/Sigmund
Freud,
Gesammelte
Werke:
Chronologische geordnet,
19 vols.
in
18
(London,
1940-68),
11:358;
and
The
Standard
Edition
of
the
Complete Psychological
Works
of Sigmund
Freud,
ed. James
Strachey.
3
vols.
(London,
1955-64),
16:345.
Subsequent
references
o
Freud'sworkwillbe cited nthetext, he GermanprecedingheEnglish ources.
13/Nicolas
oileau-D6spreaux,
Preface:Trait6du
sublime,"
n
Oeuvres
e
Boileau,
d.
M. Amar
(Paris, 1856),
p.
363.
14/Immanuel
Kant,
Gesammelte
Schriften
Berlin,
1913),
5:256;
translation from
Kant's"Critiques
of
Aesthetic
udgement,"
d.
and
trans.James
Creed Meredith
Oxford, 911),
p.
104.
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sublime
or
of
sublimation
n
Addison,
Burke, Kant,
and
Freud,
such
a line
of
development
an
be revealed.
English
aestheticians
arlyseparated
the
sublime from he
beautiful. n The
Pleasures
of
the
magination,
ddison ntroduced
his
distinction
n his
comparison
of
Homer and
Virgil.
Homer
is best at Battle or
Multitude,
Virgil
with
"copying
out
an
entertaining
icture."
Homeric
epithets
re
createdfor
he
"great";
Virgil's
forwhat s
"agreeable."
Homer's
persons
re "God-like and
Terrible,"
while
Virgil
takes
particular
are to make his
heroes "beautiful." "The
Aeneid,"
Addison
tells
us,
"is like a
well-ordered
Garden,"
but
"Homer
fills his
Readers
with
Sublime
deas."15
Although
Addison
has
selected echnical
spects
of Homer and
Virgil
o
compare,
his final
udgment
of Homer rests
not on his
style
but
on the
ideas of
the Greek
poet, echoing
Boileau's contention hat the
sublime does
not
reside n style.
In
Of
the
Sublime
Burke
also
distinguishes
he
attributes f the
sublime
from those
of the
beautiful,
creating
ists of
antithetical haracteristics. he
beautiful
s
small, smooth,
polished, light,
and
delicate.
The
sublime is
vast,
rugged
nd
negligent,
trongly
eviating
rom he
correct
ine,
dark and
gloomy,
solid and
massive.
He concludes that
"they
are
indeed ideas of a
very
different
nature,
one
being
founded on
pain,
the
other on
pleasure.
...
."16
In
an earlier
passage,
Burke
describes
the
sources
of the sublime n termswhich
underline
he
aspect
of terror nd
pai i:
"Whatever
is
fitted n
any
sort to
excite the ideas of
pain
and
danger,
that
s
to
say,
whatever
s in
any
sort
terrible,
r is
conversant
withterrible bjects,or operates n a manner nalogous to terror,s a source of
the
sublime;
that
s,
it
is
productive
f
the
strongest
motions which
the mind
s
capable
of
feeling.
say
the
strongest
motion,
because
I am satisfied he deas of
pain
are much
more
powerful
han those
which
enteron the
part
of
pleasure.""7
In
the
Critique
f
Judgment,
ant
too connects
the
sublime and the terrible
or
painful
nd
attempts
o
analyze
the
relationship
etween
he
awareness
of "dis-
pleasure"
and the more
positive
motional
component
of
the
sublime
experience.
He
attributes
he
"displeasure"
to
one's
awareness
of the
inadequacy
of
the
reason
to
cope
with the
experience.
At the same
time,
there s
pleasure
in the
awareness
of
having escaped
the confines f reason:
Das Gefiihl es Erhabenenst lso einGefiihl erUnlust usderUnangemessenheiter
Einbildungskraft
n
der
isthetischen
rbssenschitzung
u der
Schitzung
durch
die
Vernunftnd
eine
dabei
zagleich
rweckte ust
aus
der
Ubereinstimmung
ben dieses
Urtheils er
Unangemesseiheit
es
grbssten
innlichen
ermigens
mit
Vernunftideen
sofern
ie
Bestrebung
u
denselben
och
for
uns Gesetz
st.
The
feeling
f the ublime
s,
therefore,
t
once a
feeling
f
displeasure,rising
rom he
inadequacy
f
the
magina:ion
n
the esthetic stimation
f
magnitude
o
attain o its
estimation
y
reason,
nd a
simultaneously
wakened
leasure, rising
rom
his
very
judgment
f
the
nadequacy
f the
greatest aculty
f
sense
being
n
accordwith
deas
of
reason,
n
so
far s the fforto attain o these s for
us
a law.'"
15/Joseph
ddison,
The
Speciator,
d. Donald F.
Bond,
vol. 3
Oxford, 965),
no.
417,
pp.
564-65.
16/Edmund
urke,
The Workv
f
Edmund
urke,
2
vols.
Boston,
1904),
1:205-6.
17/Ibid.,
.
110.
18/Kant,
.
257;
Meredith,
.
106.
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Cohn and
Miles/The
Sublime 299
The
imagination,
unable
in the wake
of
the
sublime
experience
to
judge
and
control ts
aesthetic
response
n accord withthe
reason,
feels
imultaneously
he
pain
of
the oss of reason
and the
power
of
its new
freedom.
The
ideas,
inherent
n Burke and
Kant,
that there
s a
negative aspect
to
pleasure,
that
there
s an aesthetic
xperience
which nvolves
pain,
and that
this
pain
or
displeasure
s
a
particularly
trong
motional
experience,
eem
to
point
ahead
to
concepts developed
by
Freud,
concepts
which
depend
on the
theoretical
antithesis
between
some
aspects
of
human
consciousness and the
demands
of
human
society.
But there
s
a
further
tep
in the
development
of the aesthetic
sublime that will
contribute o the cultural
limate
n
whichFreud's work
would
be done.
The
sublime
had
continued,
in aesthetic
discussion,
to
be
conceived
in
relationto individual xperience.This was truewhether hesublimewas compre-
hended
as
inherent
n
the
object-and
that
object
itself ither
s art
or as
nature,
or
as in the
subject;
but
obviously
subjective iew,
nd the
Romantic
framework
in
which
it
developed,
tended
to
intensify
he
significance
f
the
individual's
emotive
and moral
experience.
With
Addison,
the
ublime
resided n the
object,
n worksof
art; furthermore,
it made
its
impression
n the viewer
because of a
natural
affinity
n
the
human
mind,
or
soul,
to
what
s
good
or
great
n man:
"Such
stupendous
Works
temples,
places
of
worship,
magnificent uildings
where the
deity
resides]
might,
t the
same
time,
open
the Mind
to vast
Conceptions,
and fit t
to
converse with the
Divinityof thePlace. For every hing hat s Majestick, mprintsn Awfullness
and Reverence
on
the
Mind of the
Beholder,
and
strikes t with
the Natural
Greatness of the
Soul.""1
For
Addison,
the
individual mind is a
typical
mind,
since it reflects he
general
harmony
of the
universe. n the
mind,
in
art,
in
Nature,
and in
God residethe
"Natural
Greatness,"
the
essential
goodness,
which
is the
unifying
lement n the
world. The
individual
s
more or less
passive;
a
natural and
innate element
n
his
spirit
s
awakened
by
the
sublime
object
he
beholds.
Burke's
analysis
of
the
sublime
does
not
rest
on such a
set of
assumptions,
of course. His
thrust s
psychological;
he
addresses
himself
o
the
dilemma of
finding elight n thesublime, "passion ... whichhas pain for tsobject." The
use
of
"delight"
is
peculiar
to
Burke
who
defines
pleasure
as a
positive
emotion
and
delight
s
"the
sensationwhich
ccompanies
the
removal of
pain
or
danger."
His
solution
emphasizes
equilibrium,
the
state
of rest that
follows
exertion.
Creating
an
analogy
between
emotional
and
physical
exertion,
Burke
explains
that
"as
common
labor,
which s a
mode
of
pain,
is the
exerciseof the
grosser,
mode
of
terror s the
exerciseof the finer
art
of the
system.
...
."20
The function
of the
ublime
s the
xercising
f the
finer
aculties f the
human
ystem.
here
s
an
echo
here
of
the
Aristotelian
heory
f the
value
of
catharsis nd a
suggestion
f
the
future
evelopment
f
Freudian
theory.
The individual value of the sublime in Burke's aesthetic s revealedby his
19/Addison,
o.
415,
p.
555.
20/Burke, p. 214,
108,
216.
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300
Modern
Philology
February 1977)
explanation
of the collective
value
of the
beautiful,
which s
a
quality
that
draws
men,
unlike
animals,
toward
a
sexual
object
and,
hence,
toward
procreation.
Beauty
is "that
quality,
or those
qualities
in
bodies, by
which
they
cause
love."
Therefore,
I call
beauty
a social
quality."21
For
Kant,
on
the
contrary,
eauty
s self-centerednd
egotistic;
he
ublime,
disinterested
nd selfless.With
this
discrimination
etween heaims
and
functions
of the sublime
and the
beautiful,
Kant
moves out
of the realm of
aesthetics.
nd
into
the
realm of moral
philosophy.
Though Kant,
unlike
Burke,
s
not concerned
with ndividual
psychology,
is abstractmoral
philosophy
refigures
he
Freudian
idea of
sublimation.
The
sublime,
n Kant's
view,
eads to the
comprehension
f the
moral
law,
a
law
which
can be
known
only
to
him
who
willingly
makes
sacrifices,
ndergoes
deprivation. he sublime xperiences unpleasantfrom n aesthetic ointofview,
but
our surrender
o this aesthetic
deprivation opens
the
way
for
a
positive
intellectual
nd
moral
experience:
...
und
da
diese
Macht
sich
eigentlich
urdurch
Ausopferungen
sthetischkenntlich
macht
welches
ine
Beraubung, bgleich
um Behufder nnern
reiheit,st,
dagegen
eine
unergriindliche
iefedieses
tibersinnlichen
ermogens
mit hren
ns
Unabsehliche
sich
rstreckenden
olgen
n
uns
aufdeckt):
o ist
das
Wohlgefallen
on der
sthetischen
Seite
in
Beziehung
us
Sinnlichkeit)
egativ,
.i.
wider ieses
nteresse,
on der ntellec-
tuellen
ber
betrachtet,
ositiv
nd mit inem nteresse
erbunden.
Now,
since
t
s
only hrough
acrificeshat
his
might
which
he
moral aw exerts ver
us]
makes
tself
nown
o
us
aesthetically,and
this
nvolves
deprivation
f
omething-
thoughnthe nterestsf nner reedom-whilstnturntrevealsnus an unfathomable
depth
f
this
upersensible
aculty,
he
consequences
f which
xtend
eyond
eachof
the
ye
of
ense,)
t
follows hat
he
delight,
ooked
t from he esthetic
ide
in
reference
to
sensibility)
s
negative.
.e.
opposed
to this
nterest,
ut
from he
ntellectual
ide,
positive
nd bound
up
with n
interest.22
In Kant's
view there
s
no
Addisonian sense of the
natural
goodness
of
man;
on
the
contrary
ach
man must
struggle,
y
efforts f the
reason,
to force the will
to
engage
in
goodness.
It
is
through
he
experience
f the
sublime
that
man can
develop
the
strength
f reason
and will:
...
weil die menschliche
atur
nicht o von
selbst,
ondern ur
durch
Gewalt,
welche
die Vernunft erSinnlichkeitnthut,u jenemGutenzusammenstimmt.mgekehrt
wird
uch
das,
was
wir
n
der Natur usser
uns,
oder
auch
in
uns...
erhaben
ennen,
nur
ls
eine
Macht des
Gemuths,
ich
uber
gewisse
Hindernisse er
Sinnlichkeit
urch
moralische
rundsatze
u
schwingen,
orgestellt
nd
dadurch
nteressant
erden.
... forhuman
nature
oes
not
of
tsown
proper
motion
ccordwith he
good,
but
only
by
virtue
fthedomination
hich
eason
xercises
ver
ensibility.
onversely,
hat, oo,
whichwe call sublime
.. is
only epresented
s
a
might
f
the
mind
nabling
t
to over-
come
this r thathindrance
f
sensibility
y
means f
moral
rinciples,
nd
t
s from
his
that
t derives
ts
nterest."3
No
longer
an aesthetic
ategory
which,
n
art, nature,
or the human
subject
operatesupon
the
mind,
Kant's
sublime becomes
an
active,
almost
a
muscular,
engagement
f
the
spirit
perating
for moral ends. For
Kant,
Burke's "exercise"
21/Ibid.,
p.
165,
15.
22/Kant,
.
271;
Meredith,
.
123.
23/Ibid.
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Sublime 301
does not
have its
end
in
individual mental
health,
but in the
development
f
such
socially
valuable
attributes s
disinterestedness
nd
"anti-egotism."
The
moral
agent
and the moral
goal
are still
confined
within
the
individual,
to be
sure,
butthe
mplied
ffectfsuch moral
uplift
s societal.
From the
point
of view
of
Freudian
psychology,
Kant's
process
necessitates
he
repression
of certain
aspects
of the
human
spirit,
what
he calls
"sensibilities,"
ut
what we
might
more
typically
abel
the
senses,
n the nterest f
some
highergood.
When we turn
o
Freud and
his
theory
f
sublimation,
we
recognize
irst
hat
he
has taken
the term
rom chemical-scientific
ocabulary,
orhe uses
Sublimier-
ung
rather han
any
of
the
native
German
words which
had
been
developed
for
the
figurative
ses
of
the
concepts
of sublime
nd
sublimation. n the
one instance
that Freud does
use
the
aesthetic erm
sublime,"
in his
essay
on
"The
Uncanny"
(Das Unheimlich),
e
chooses, as had Kant, to use the termErhaben X, 269;
XVII, 219).
Freud
conceives of his
use
of
the
word
Sublimierung
sublimation)
s
an
innovation;
the German text ets the
word
in
double
spaces,
the
equivalent
of
italics for
emphasis,
and Freud
customarily
efines he term
as
he
employs
t.
The
definitions
eveal
subtle
but
highly
ignificant
hanges
in
Freud's own con-
ception
of
the
term and
the
social
meaning
of
the
process.
An
early
use and
definition
f
sublimation
occur
in
"'Civilized'
Sexual
Morality"
(1908):
"Man
nennt
diese
Fihigkeit,
das
urspriinglich
exuelle Ziel
gegen
ein
anderes,
nicht
mehr
exuelles,
ber
psychisch
mit
hm
verwandtes,
u
vertauschen,
ie
Fdihigkeit
zur Sublimierun g" ("this capacity to exchangeits originalsexual aim for
another
one,
which s
no
longer
exual
but which s
psychically
elated
o the
first
aim,
is called
the
capacity
for sublimation
Sublimierung]")
VII, 150;
IX,
187).
The sexual
aim
for
Freud,
unlike
Burke,
s
not social and
is
at
best
controlled.
ike
Kant,
Freud
sees
as
a
necessary
human
capacity
the
ability
to
repress
an
un-
acceptable
urge
or
goal,
and to
replace
it
with nother im.
By
1909,
Freud was
able
to label this
secondary
im
as
"higher."
n "Five
Lectures
on
Psycho-Analysis,"
he
says
".. . dieser Wunsch
wird
selbst auf
ein
h6heres
und darum einwandfreies iel
geleitet
was
man seine
Sublimierung
heisst)" ".
.
.
the wish tself
may
be
directed o a
higher
nd
consequently nobjec-
tionable aim [this is whywe call it sublimation]") (VIII, 25-26; XI, 27-28).
Consciously
or
not,
Freud
has
now set the
term,
ublimation,
nto
its
original
context
of
elevation
and
purification.
In
still ater
work,
Freud
begins
to connect
ublimationwith he direction
f
energy
toward
goals
that are
satisfying
ocially
rather
than
individually.
Each
such
step
brings
us further rom he
Addisonian view of
harmony mong man,
nature, ociety,
nd
God.
In
"Some
Thoughts
on
Development
and
Regression-
Aetiology"
1917),
Freud discriminated exual
from ocial
aims;
the
process
that
"places
social aims
higher
than
the
sexual
ones"
is
called sublimation.The
emphasis
s
again
on
elevation,
on a
scale of values which
places
the social
above
thesexual whichFreud,echoingKant, labels as "self-interested""selbstsiichti-
gen") (XI,
358-9;
XVI, 345).24
24/Philip
oth,
nterviewed
y
Alan
Lelchuk
"On Satirizing residents,"
tlantic
Monthly
28
[December 971]:
81-88),
defines
atire
y
reference
o Freud's
heory
that ivilized
ife
began
when the first
ngry
man chose invective nd verbal
abuse over
physical
violence."
Roth
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302
Modern
Philology
February
1977)
In "Civilization
and Its Discontents"
1930),
Freud states
that
sublimation
transfers
ur
aims from
the level
of
individual
gratification
o that of cultural
development:
Die
Triebsublimierung
st
ein
besonders ervorstechender
ug
der
Kulturentwicklung,
sie
macht es
m6iglich,
ass h6here
psychische
itigkeiten,
issenschaftliche,
iinst-
lerische,
deologische,
ine
so
bedeutsame
olle
im
Kulturleben
pielen.
Sublimation
f nstinct
s
an
especially onspicuous
eature
fcultural
evelopment;
t s
whatmakes t
possible
or
higher sychical
ctivities,cientific,
rtistic
r
deological,
o
play
suchan
importantart
n civilized ife.
XIV,
457; XXI,
97]
Given
the
values of
sublimation,
t
may
not be the
vicissitude
t
appears.
Freud's view
takes
us far from the seventeenth-
nd
eighteenth-century
English
uses
of
sublime,
elf-love nd
social are
no
longer
the same.
Both Kant
and Freud see a
bestial
quality
n
man;
the
aesthetic
ublime
or the
psychological
act of
sublimation
ontrols nd
represses
he beast in
the
nterests
f
civilization.
While Kant's
Erhabencand
Freud's
Sublimierung
ecome
words of
the sublime
family
n
English (where
these
words have maintained
a
long
history
f
both
scientific nd
figurative
ses),
the introduction nto
English
of
the
particular
meanings
carried n Kant
and
Freud has altered the
native
fieldof
connotation
for
ublime
by nsisting
n the
superiority
f
the
societal
over
the
ndividual
im.
In
English,
the
sublime n all
its
figurative
ses,
aesthetic
s
well as
theological,
focused on
the
individual
experience
nd
response.
Even
Burke,
with
his aware-
ness
of the
perverse
value of
pleasure-pain,
was concerned
with
the
individual
exerciseof thepsyche nd withthe individualhealthof the finer acultieswhose
"sacrifices,"
f
any,
were
only
vicarious.
In the word
sublime
ie
partial
histories
of
English
word
building,
word
borrowing,
esthetics, cience,
and
philosophy.
Afterthe
Anglo-Saxon
period,
when
native roots were
compounded
for
careful
translation
f the
Latin words
for limit"
and for
threshold-lintel," nglishbegan
tscareer
of word
borrowing.
First
in
the field
of
alchemy
and
then
with extended
metaphorical
meanings,
sublimewords
entered
English
with
variety
f
meanings
nd connotations.
The
vocabulary
of rhetoric
ept
sublime
o a
fairly
igorous
definition
f
loftiness n
style.
Theological
usage pushed
the
metaphoric
associations
further,
nd
in
general peechtheword floundered hrough he sixteenth enturywithmeanings
as diverse
s
promoted
nd
prideful.
After
oileau,
the sublime became
a
fieldfor
aesthetic-critical
riting;
here
ts
focus
shifted rom
rt to
nature,
nd
from
he
object
to
the
subject.
In
Burke
and
in
Kant,
the
extensions
were widened
and
altered,
reating
inally
wordwhose
meaning
mplied
levation f
soul,
specifically
in
Kant the
throwing
ff
f
the
bestial
n
man,
clear evidence
of a
moral act of
the
will.
Freud's
word,
takingSublimierung
rom
scientific
ocabulary
and
adding
to
English
a
new
meaning
for
the
already
overloaded
sublimation,
eveloped
the
Kantian attitude
further;
ublimationbecame
a
mental
process
of
suppressing
man's
lower
desires nd
substituting
or them
highergoals.
Implicit
hroughout
goes
on to
explain
hat what
begins
s
the desire o
murder
our
enemy
withblows
.. is
most
horoughly
ublimated,
r
socialized,
n
the
rtof
atire"
p.
86).
Here
aggression
ecomes
the
dangerous
ersonal
passion
that
s,
for ocial
ends,
ublimated.
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303
this
ater
development
s the
anti-Romantic
ssumption
hat
man,
unlike
Rous-
seau's
1?mile,
s
basically
dangerous,dangerous
especially
n relation o the
goals
of
his
society.
The
higher ood
becomes the
ocial
good,
and the
ct of
sublimation
is a
moral act
in which selfish nds are
sacrificed
o social:
the ndividual
psyche
controlledfor
the
"progress"
of
civilization.
V
Live
a
saintly
ife.
.
prayers
nd matins
nd
all
that,
nd
the
subconsciousmind hikes
you
out of
bed at
night
o
steal under-
muslins ubliminal
heft,
o to
speak.
[MARY
ROBERTS
RINEHART,
The Man in Lower
Ten]
The
peculiar
history
of the
vocabulary
of
English
reflectsnot
only
our
penchantforborrowingwords fromother anguages,but forcoiningwords out
of
borrowed
roots. Such
a coined word is
subliminal,
pparently
nvented
by
J. A. Ward in the
nineteenth
entury
o translate
he
phrase
"unter
der
Schwelle"
from he
German educational
psychologist
ohann
Friedrich
Herbart.25
Ward,
a
British
Horatio
Alger
who
began
as
a
grocer's
son
and
became a
Cambridge
scholar,
coined subliminal
with
fine ense
of
the
meaning
of
the Latin rootssub-
and limin-limen
nd
an
equally
fine
disregard
for its
similarity
n form and
opposition
in
meaning
to the
derivatives f
sublime n
English.
French
psychologists
avoided this
problem by
translating
"under
the
threshold"
of
consciousness)
s
infraliminaire;
erman
psychologists
onstructed
new words out of native rather than borrowed roots. In G. T. Fechner,the
nineteenth-century
sychciphysiologist
nd
experimental
esthetician,
he word
appears
as
Bewusstseinss,
welle
consciousness
threshold).
The related terms
Unterbewusstsein
nd
Unbewusste
lso
appear
for the
subconscious
and the
unconscious. Freud
consistently
voids terms or
subconscious,
using
them
only
to
quote
the
work of
others,
nd
in his
later
writing
ttacks
the
word and the
related dea:
Wenn
emand
vomUnterbewusstsein
pricht,
eiss ch
nicht,
meint r es
topisch,
twas,
was
in
der Seele
unterhalb
es
Bewusstseins
iegt,
der
qualitativ,
in
anderes ewusst-
sein,
in
unterirdisches
leicisam.
If omeone alks fsubconsciousnessUnterbewusstsein],cannot ellwhetheremeans
the
term
opographically----i
indicate
omething
ying
n the
mindbeneath he con-
sciousness--or
ualitatively-
o indicate
nother
onsciousness,
subterranean
ne,
as
it
were.
XIV,
225;
XX,
1981
Thus,
it is
a
uniquely
British
development
hat
gives
us
the
parallel
terms ub-
limation
nd
subliminal or
antithetically
ifferent
oncepts. Only
in the
nk-horn
terms
f the
nineteenth-century
ritish
cholar-scientistsoes a new value
appear
for
a word
connected
with
ublime;
only
in
subliminal oes
the
full
meaning
of
"below"
appear
and does the
connotationof the
dark and
subterranean
eplace
the
meanings
of loftiness
nd
purification.
25/The
933
Supplement
f the OED adds
the dverb
ubliminally
ith
1919
citation.Here
also
is an
additionaldefinition
or
ublimation,
ntroducing
ts
psychoanalytic
eaning
nd
citing
Dr.
Constance
E.
Long's
edition
nd
translation
f
Carl G.
Jung's
ollected
apers
n
Analytic
Psychology London,
1916).
-
7/25/2019 Jan Cohn and Thomas H. Miles -- The Sublime- In Alchemy, Aesthetics and Psychoanalysis
17/17
304 Modern
Philology February
1977)
It
is
ironic that the
etymological
ense
of
J.
A.
Ward
was
accurate,
for
the
semanticsof
the
new sciences reflects
heirdrift
way
from
the central core
of
theirsociety:the naive empiricism f thesescientists xpresses tselfn themost
literalist
kind of Latin
borrowing.
n the
same
encyclopedia
article in
which
"subliminal" is said to have
first
ppeared,
one
can
find s
well
extensity,nvolution,
innervation,
rradiation,
deation,
ercept,
nd
the
most bizarre
neologism
of the
lot:
oblivescence.
All are
scientific ermsfrom he
nineteenth
entury
nd a
few,
amusingly,
had once
been
terms
contrived
by
ink-horn
xperts
of
the
sixteenth,
terms hat
subsequently
ellnot
into oblivescence
but into total
oblivion.
Carnegie-Mellon
University
nd West
Virginia
University
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rom he
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Edited
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collected
y
R.
P.
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y
Joseph
osworth,
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y
T. Northcote
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19-.
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Dictionary
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By
Ernest Klein.
2
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New
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y
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A Greek-Engli
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