The Gift of Sublimation: A Psychoanalytic Study of Multiple Masculinities

Nathan Carlin · Donald Capps

Jun 2015 · Wipf and Stock Publishers

About this ebook

There is not, and never was, a monolithic masculinity; there are, and always have been, multiple masculinities. Today diversity with regard to gender and sexuality is beginning to be recognized and celebrated even while many religious denominations still resist these cultural changes.

This book offers pastoral interpretations of these social shifts in light of psychological principles, applying them to topics such as the moral disapproval of masturbation; the efforts of some churches to convince homosexual men to adopt a heterosexual orientation; the dynamics of male envy of female longevity; the homosexual tendencies of King James of England and Scotland; and biblical portraits of God's body, gender, and sexuality.

The authors make a special use of the psychoanalytic concept of sublimation--that is, the redirection of sexual desires that are considered unacceptable or unworthy toward interests and aspirations that are considered acceptable and worthy. While the use of psychoanalytic hermeneutics here is likely to raise various red flags for potential religious readers (especially for those who have been informed that Sigmund Freud was hostile toward religion), this book presents a rather different Freud by focusing on religious sublimation.

About the author

Nathan Carlin is Associate Professor in the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics at the University of Texas Medical School. He is the author or coauthor of three previous books, including Religious Mourning (Wipf & Stock, 2014). Donald Capps is Professor of Pastoral Psychology (Emeritus) and Adjunct Professor at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the author of many books, including Reframing (1990); Agents of Hope (1995; Wipf & Stock, 2001); Men, Religion, and Melancholia (1997); and At Home in the World (Cascade Books, 2013).