Sublimation and courtly love: A lesson for art education

Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis offers provocative and effective frameworks for understanding the production and reception of art. By doing so, psychoanalysis widens the scope of art education for the student and the teacher. In particular Freud's theory of sublimation provides an analysis of the artistic process, which is a theory since brought to its fruition by Lacan. Lacan uses the historical and artistic period of courtly love to explain sublimation in art. Involved in this discussion are the elements of fantasy, desire and the sexual relationship which underpins not only psychoanalysis but all of human life.