Are we missing something about envy? Expanding the understanding of envious feelings, their adaptive functions, and cultural contexts

The paper rethinks one of the key psychoanalytic concepts, envy. Inspired by a radically different social use of envy in another culture, it revisits psychoanalytic views on envy with the aim to consider their cultural framework and widen the understanding of envy’s functions. Re-evaluating Klein’s theory of envy as shaped by the interaction of phantasy and real environment, the paper uncovers omissions in her examples that suggest envy’s overlooked adaptive role in the feeling of being overwhelmed in the extremely asymmetrical early relationship. Particular attention is paid to Klein’s view of envy as an attack on “goodness,” which supports a theory of envy as a signaling emotion in a situation of potential overwhelm and power differential. Through a proposed link between some of Klein’s therapeutic work and Winnicott’s concept of the use of illusion, the paper considers the relation of envy to the nascent understanding of something as “good” within a relationship of dependency. With this, the paper shows envy’s crucial role in meaning-making. The paper concludes by reflecting on the implications of this understanding of envy for its possible social roles.