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Envy, Self‐Esteem and the Fear of Separateness
Author(s) -
Colman Warren
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0118.1991.tb01141.x
Subject(s) - omnipotence , learned helplessness , psychology , impulse (physics) , feeling , psychic , social psychology , fantasy , self esteem , projective identification , psychoanalysis , epistemology , psychoanalytic theory , philosophy , medicine , art , physics , alternative medicine , literature , pathology , quantum mechanics
SUMMARY. This paper provides a critical discussion of Klein's theory of envy as primary, an innate aspect of the destructive forces. The author argues that envy is the outcome of a defective mother/ infant fit in which the infant's need for illusory omnipotence is not met, resulting in a sense of lack of sufficient internal resources to manage existence as a separate individual (i.e. feelings of worthlessness and helplessness). Envy arises from this sense of lack through the compensatory fantasy of an all‐providing other who possesses the qualities required to fill the gap. If the gap is felt to be intolerable, destructive spoiling ensues as an attempt to obliterate it. This aspect of envy is therefore seen as ultimately defensive rather than, as in Klein's view, a primary impulse against which defences are instituted.