ABSTRACT
Envy in a family system can have damaging consequences throughout the life-cycle, but particularly in which a child develops from being exclusively dependent on mother and father to exploring the world, others, and her own creativity. Melanie Klein was not the first to write about envy in the therapeutic encounter but she is the one who put envy on the map. Klein’s paper, ‘Envy and gratitude’, was her attempt to explain what had come to be known as the ‘negative therapeutic reaction’. George M. Foster’s anthropological analysis of envy put forward the view that Western society defends against acknowledging envy, not so much because it is unspeakable, but because it is an admission of inferiority. Idealization is a defence against envy. Envy is one polarity of idealization and emulation. Confusion and doubt can function as defences against envy.
