In this highly sophisticated and kaleidoscopic account, Eckart Goebel offers a penetrating study of a topic that, despite its ubiquity, has hitherto failed to receive a sustained and critical analysis: 'sublimation.' With theoretical astuteness and literary elegance, philosophical and literary works are brought into fascinating and reciprocally illuminating conversation.

John T. Hamilton, Professor of Comparative Literature, Chair 2011-2012, Harvard University, USA

It is good news that we finally have a book on the concept of sublimation, but we are particularly fortunate to have gotten such a smart, profound, and moving one. Beyond Discontent is much more than the exploration of a Freudian concept - it is an extraordinarily successful study in the history of a figure of thought central to all theories of civilization.

Silke-Maria Weineck, Associate Professor of German and Chair of Comparative Literature, University of Michigan, USA

Eckhart Goebel offers lucid and illuminating explorations of the concept of sublimation… [showing] that the notion of sublimation is not so much a single doctrine as a continuing debate on the relationship between the self and nature, the individual and civilization… This review cannot do justice to the richness of Beyond Discontent. Throughout, Goebel's treatment is thorough without being pedantic, philosophically and theoretically sophisticated without being obscure. Both elegant and accessible, it is the summary and starting point for anyone who would 'reflect a little longer' on the complex and ubiquitous doctrine of sublimation.

Goethe Yearbook (Thomas L. Cooksey, Armstrong Atlantic State University, USA)

Goebel (German studies, New York Univ.) reframes a central tenet of Freudian thought, sublimation, to tell an alternative story of modern intellectual history and thought. ... Particularly enlightening is the third chapter on Nietzsche and his methodical use of sublimation and its three-dimensionality (culture, individual psychology, philosophy), which Goebel invokes to reexamine central concepts of Nietzsche's thought. Chapter 6, "The Sublimation of Nature: Theodor W. Adorno," offers a refreshing perspective on critical theory ... making this an enjoyable read in cultural theory even for those less interested in sublimation. ... This is a book for intellectual historians as well as practitioners of psychoanalysis.

Choice