The introduction of Freud’s second drive dualism is conected to a series of changes in the understanding of sublimation. Sublimation begins to present itself as the main cause of drive defusion, what leads to a paradox: for, if sublimation is the foundation of culture, it is also the cause of destructivity in this same culture. The death drive resulting from drive defusion has effects as much in each individual - as it is the case of social isolation and melancholy - as in the culture as a whole, as it is observed regarding to the primacy of image in contemporary society. This article aims to discuss some of the effects of defusionned death drive, understood as result of sublimation, mainly in respect to sublimation implied in literary creation.
Culture; Sublimation; Death drive; Drive fusion and defusion; Literary creation