ABSTRACT
This chapter was presented at a conference with the unlikely title 'Desiring Admiring Envying: Between Longing and Destruction'. Interestingly, desire is presented in an ambiguous way. It is not clear whether it is a longing for what is provided by the object in a relationship, out of which may come development and growth – what people may think of as a loving intercourse – or whether desire is, as the OED seems to suggest, for possession of the object. Considered developmentally, Sigmund Freud, early on, gave an account of His Majesty the Baby (1914), with his wish to have it all and be it all. The hungry baby understandably, would wish to possess the breast so that he would not have to feel his own hunger/need. The chapter addresses the vicious circles or 'interwoven snakes'. The author argues that envy is interwoven with deprivation and loss, and further, interweaves with jealousy, and guilt, and creates or perpetuates, infinite vicious circles.
