Much of this paper is taken up with a discussion of the relationship between acting out and sublimation. After comparing the characteristic features of acting out and sublimation, Kanzer employs the case of Dostoevsky to illustrate the relationship which existed between the author's gambling mania and his creative work. Kanzer suggests that acting out, sublimations, and work have their origins in successive stages of reality testing paralleling the transition from the primary to the secondary process.