ABSTRACT
In this contribution, I will develop some ideas about the role of friendship in female development, tracing the influence of jealousy and envy as both facilitating and destructive dimensions along the path to adulthood. I will examine the developmental literature in adolescence, with a particular focus upon girls and women, but with some brief clinical examples drawn from both females and males, including transference material. However, female development will remain the principal focus, with particular emphasis upon the development of the sense of self as subject and the development of intersubjectivity and mutual recognition. In lieu of an extended clinical vignette, I will use Elena Ferrante’s The Neapolitan Novels (2014b), a set of books that traces the development of two girls—later, women—throughout their lives. I will highlight the ameliorative aspects of friendship vis-à-vis jealousy and its overall impact upon 62development in the direction of maturity. It is also hoped that a focus upon this remarkable set of books, a Bildungsroman set in the slums of Naples, will shed some light both upon the construction of female identity amid patriarchy, and the emergence of strivings towards a more nuanced and independent identity. Allow me, though, to begin with some short clinical vignettes.
