Sublimation and impossible sublimation: Modigliani
Article:
About the Author:
Daniela LUCA 
dr.
Institutul de Filologie „Bogdan Petriceicu-Hasdeu” al USM
E-mail: danielaluca2[@]gmail.com
Abstract: Sublimation, the creative act/process often appear as an attempt at psychic survival in the face of painful, insurmountable, indescribable experiences. Creating becomes an attempt to stop the bleeding of pain, as we also discover in Modigliani’s creation. Since childhood he has faced illness and pain, suffering and loss, trying to transform them through painting, not to get rid of suffering, but to become the one who destroys his creations when anger, despair, violence are uncontrollable. But the suffering at the center of the creative process does not always refer to a trauma present in the reality or in the history of the creator’s life: it is not necessary to know the author’s biography to understand that the work is also an attempt to elaborate pain. We will try to illustrate how sublimation and the creative act can be brought to an impasse, they can be impossible, even for creative geniuses, when destructive impulses reach a deadly paroxysm.
Keywords: creative act, creativity, destructiveness, fascination, idealization, sublimation, suffering