ABSTRACT
Kleptomania reveals its kernel of unconscious greed in the emphasis it places on the specific objects of theft. Melanie Klein's definition separates greed from hunger, insofar as greed "exceeds what the subject needs." Even a very powerful need such as hunger can be slaked and sated whereas greed, being insatiable, is incapable of satisfaction. Harold Boris summarizes the relationship or non-relationship between greed and its object thus: The greedy patient avoids choice by accepting nothing and awaiting everything. He will not go after what he can get. He will not work to earn "some things." He accepts nothing specific because a single thing is nothing compared with "everything." The multidisciplinary field of adult development has shown us that adult stages are critical in the facilitation and consolidation of personal growth. By the same token, Greed resists the psychoanalytic process and the efforts of psychoanalysts. Analytic research takes place at the frontier between what is analyzable and what is not.
