THE SUBLIMATION OF RAGE

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was a Mexican artist who lived a life of pain.  As a child she was disabled by polio.  At age 18, despite being a promising student with aspirations for a medical career, she was in a bus accident which broke her pelvis, legs, and caused permanent internal injuries.  Her hopes for a medical career now over, she turned to painting as a way to express her feelings about herself and others. Her painting titled The Dream (The Bed) sold for $54.7 million; the most expensive painting by a female artist. 

 

But Ms. Kahlo’s pain was more than physical.  Her husband’s serial affairs, her inability to bear children due to her damaged uterus, her financial difficulties, and her extended time of feeling alone were the recipe for deep seated anger. 

 

Freudian psychologists believe that the human psyche can be structured into three components, one of which is the place where aggression is bottled up, being repressed by the code of conduct for polite society.  But eventually it must be relieved or it will explode.  Their solution is sublimation, or the re-direction of aggressive energy into positive projects:  like art.  Or, high-speed house cleaning. 

 

The Biblical solution to deep rage is to become a new creation in Christ.  That’s how the angry Saul became Paul; how Simon the Gentile-hater became Peter, and how you and I can overcome whatever raging trauma may exist in our past.