DISCUSSION: Dr. Robert Bak noted that theoretical ideas are still rather speculative in view of our limited clinical data. Hartmann extended the concept of sublimation by equating it with neutralization. The strength of the ego apparatus depends to a large extent on its resistance to instinctualization. By including the neutralization of the aggressive drive, the libidinal investment of various self-representations, with a 'discrediting of narcissism', may be diminished. Narcissism plays a role in both sublimation and the restitution of object relationships. Bak questioned whether sublimation achieves conflict solution, and cited papers by Imre Hermann and Greenacre on creativity. He noted that creativity is also probably initially connected with transitional objects, as a substitute for the mother.

Dr. Edith Jacobson remarked that the authors had presented 'a truly psychoanalytic paper in Waelder's terms of observation, clinical theory, and metapsychology'. She agreed that Hartmann's original proposition did not