What is Sublimation?
We all have impulses to do socially inappropriate things, we have sexual fantasies, that if we manifest in public, would be less than ideal. A solution to this plight of ours comes through sublimation, the redirecting of libidinal energy towards socially beneficial pursuits.
This idea from psychology was popularized by Freud, but he was not the only person who had something to say about it.
The concept of sublimation was well known before Freud, and Freud never claimed to have introduced it. It is used by Navalis, Schopenhauer, and particularly by Nietzsche. (The Discovery of the Unconscious)
Examples
Imagine a sadist who would have been destined to inflict pain on his fellow human beings instead becoming a surgeon or a dentist – that is, to get paid for being inhumane. Or imagine the case of the professional NFL athlete who knocks people unconscious for a living.
The idea of sublimation has some scientific credibility. A study in 2013 showed that Protestants were more likely to sublimate their taboo feelings into creative activities, and that people who had sexual problems related to anxieties over taboo desires were more likely to have creative accomplishments than those who did not. These studies may be the first experimental evidence for sublimation.