ABSTRACT

One thing we work to do is to establish the reality of the self. When the essential element in the reality of the self is its recognition by others, then work means seeking after recognition. Psychologically, this dependence on recognition originates in the problems of internalization considered in Chapter 1. Failure of internalization promotes a particularly acute form of dependence on others for the emotional sustenance needed to secure a sense of the value of the self so that the self only has value when it is seen by others in a speci®c way. Work is now done to shape relatedness to make it consistent with a grandiose self-fantasy capable of offsetting the weakness of the internalized good object relation and the strength of the bad. The con®guration of internalized object relations limits the individual's ability to make work a creative activity since it limits the capacity of the individual to sustain the conviction that he or she can be the source of the good. As the importance of the grandiose fantasy increases, the individual's capacity to tolerate the idea that the valued self may also and equally reside in others erodes, resulting in a strong tendency toward an exclusionary construction of the good self as something that cannot be shared. The result is that work gets powerfully bound up with greed, envy and competition.