The transformation of the sexual instincts towards non-sexual ends. Freud, Sigmund proposes this concept as an explanation for how it is possible for all human activity to be driven by the libido and for there to be a wide range of activities not obviously sexual in nature. Indeed, Freud will go so far as to say that civilization itself is a steady process of the sublimation of the sexual instincts. His principle example of sublimation is art: art, Freud argues, is a result of the sublimation of the artistâs libidinal energy. What Freud does not properly explain, however, is the mechanism by which this process of sublimation takes place. For this reason, although the concept is widely referred to by Freud, in contemporary psychoanalysis it is usually treated with scepticism. Lacan, Jacques uses the concept of sublimation in his work only in a highly modified form.