Summary:
This is a paper about the concepts of generosity and destructiveness. My thoughts are based on Melanie Klein’s paper ‘Envy and Gratitude’ (1957) and Bion’s ‘Attacks on Linking’ (1959). I shall explore innate love and hate, and how envy and its defences, can affect ego development. I shall look at what influence the environment may have and how, if things go well, generosity develops..
Primary Envy:
There is conflict within us between the urge to love and hate. Freud had explored women’s envy of male attributes and Karen Horney the boy’s envy of femininity and child-bearing as an aspect of the negative Oedipus complex. (Segal, 1989:139) In 1957, when Klein published her book ‘Envy and Gratitude’ envy become a real, if controversial concept of primitive, powerful emotion, enlarged upon by Bion through his explorations of another Kleinian concept, projective identification..
Conflict begins at birth because of the death instinct, an urge to destroy the infant’s own life. For Freud, libido was opposed by the silent death instinct striving for dissolution. For Klein, there was visible, clinical evidence of the death instinct operating with destructiveness towards the self. (Hinshelwood, 1989:266) The infant feels destructiveness from within which he deflects into the outside world to make anxiety bearable. He therefore turns external reality bad through projection, while also projecting goodness from the life instinct as compensation. The inner and outer worlds are therefore recycled constantly and affect each other through projection and introjection..
Klein sees envy as innate destructiveness originating from the death instinct, manifesting itself as oral-sadistic and anal-sadistic impulses deflected into the external world, away from the infant, against the good object. Dependency is resented by the infant, and therefore goodness needs to be spoilt or destroyed. Envy is the tendency to establish hostile relations with the good object and is an attack upon object-relations per se in order to preserve omnipotence and self-idealisation. (Hinshelwood, 1991:174).
Introjecting the good object is a prerequisite for healthy development. Losing and regaining it reinforces destructiveness and generosity. (Klein, 1957:180) Gratification stirs in the infant two opposite reactions: gratitude, but also envy because he realises that the source of food and love lies outside himself and he wishes to be this perfect source. Primary envy is destructive because hatred is not directed against the withholding breast, but the nourishing breast, the feeding source of life, goodness itself. This seems to be a psycho-analytical explanation of original sin..
Klein distinguishes between envy, jealousy and greed: envy is most primitive and destructive. (Klein, 1957:181) Greed and jealousy are based on, and may cover up, envy. Gomez says that the innate destructiveness of the death instinct is clearly seen in greed, which is an introjection going beyond what the subject needs and the object can give, the phantasy being that the infant can take the whole breast and feed himself. (Gomez, 1997:39) Jealousy is based on envy, but is a later development as it is about a relationship of at least three people, belonging later in life, when objects are recognised and differentiated. (Segal, 1988:40).
Development:
Primary envy starts in the paranoid-schizoid position. Envy between mother and baby becomes internalised, resulting in a severe and envious super-ego, which attacks the individual’s creative abilities. It is this spoiling aspect of envy which is so damaging to development, since the very source of goodness is turned bad and a good object cannot be introjected, causing ego development to suffer. This lack of a good object increases envy of others who have one, and a vicious circle starts. However, envy may be split off early in development through violent projective identification, resulting in a depletion of the ego. (Hinshelwood, 1991:172).
These violent attacks are what Bion describes, when referring to Klein’s theories, saying: “the name she gives the mechanism by which parts of the personality are split off and projected into external objects.” (Bion, 1959: 93).
Envy begins at birth, when the infant relates to part-objects, but continues into whole-object relationships. In the depressive position, an envious attack on a loved object stimulated by its goodness causes guilt and interferes with reparation. (Segal, 1989:142) Envy is about envying what the other possesses and is, and spoiling that, rather than obtaining it. The infant may have phantasies of getting into the good object and destroying it from within, via projection; or the good object may be damaged in phantasy by tearing it to pieces and taking it inside the self, via introjection. The good object is spoilt through violent possession or control. This may lead to unsatisfied hunger as the internal state remains empty, the infant taking in damaged objects, each causing a greater hunger for a good object. (Hinshelwood, 1991:171).
Envy of the breast can get displaced onto the penis, which is less destructive, and can lead to a sense of healthy rivalry, as it is not guilt-ridden, (Segal, 1988:52) but if it happens too early may lead to premature sexualisation. (Segal, 1989:142) “Excessive envy interferes with adequate oral gratification and so acts as a stimulus towards the intensification of genital desires.” (Klein, 1957:195).
Defences:
Because envy causes anxiety defences, such as splitting and projective identification, are mobilised, as I will show later. However these defences adversely affect development and are therefore unsuccessful: in later life envy can prevent people from receiving anything. Whole areas of life may become restricted. Feeding, reading, learning, and a person’s sexual gratification may be negatively affected. Envious people cannot experience gratitude and their ability to love and enjoy life is limited. Envy will make a person insecure, which fuels envy of others who are more secure, which causes bad relations. Envious people experience difficulties at every stage of development, especially as they get older. They will find it difficult to make way for the next generation, while enjoying their own successes or regretting their failures with grace. (Joseph, 1989:186).
The envious person may envy the other’s quiet intelligence or peace of mind and sets about provoking them until they loose their cool. They cannot face another’s success, enjoyment or pleasure. They cannot bear that something good is given to them by another person. They will begrudge recognising its value and will be unable to experience gratitude. The envious person may become confused about whether a person is good or bad; this may counteract the guilt about having spoilt the primary object. They may want to stir up envy in others to give them a sense of superiority, but then also feel threatened. This can lead to underachievement, because of fear of others’ envy, but may really be a projection of their own. They may want to devalue the envied object as it then need not be envied. (Klein, 1957:217) If the analyst becomes dull and stupid he is not much use to them, but their envy is appeased, there is nothing left to envy and their mental balance is restored..
We sometimes stifle feelings of love and intensify feelings of hate as this is less painful than bearing the guilt from the mixture of feelings of love, hate and envy. (Klein, 1957:219) This may take on the appearance of indifference and will make helpful responses from the therapist particularly hard to bear: they may be heard as cold and patronising..
Envy may lead to a negative therapeutic reaction and interminable treatments. Klein believed that the analysis of split-off envy could lead to the overcoming of this reaction and make analysis more effective, by integrating it, thus freeing and enriching the therapeutic relationship and the whole personality. (Klein, 1957:233) However she thought that in certain cases envy was rooted in unalterable constitutional factors so powerful that no integration could be achieved..
Environment:
Klein is criticised for not taking the environment into consideration. Bion taking the concept of destructiveness further, showed that envy can be influenced by the environment: out of dread of annihilation by the death instinct, the infant projects fear of death into the mother. If the mother is able to contain these feelings, “and yet retain a balanced outlook” (Bion, 1959:104) they become modified before the infant receives them back in digestible form. If the mother cannot contain his feelings, the infant feels he is too much for the mother and internalises a bad sense of himself. This leaves him in a devalued position and he envies the superior position of the mother and later other people with happier dispositions..
Bion’s words describe it well: “The result is excessive projective identification by the patient and a deterioration of her developmental processes.” (Bion, 1959:105)
However, some infants are “overwhelmed with hatred and envy of the mother’s ability to retain a comfortable state of mind although experiencing the infant’s feelings.” (Bion, 1959:105) This may provoke envious attacks..
“Attacks on the link, therefore, are synonymous with attacks on the analyst’s, and originally the mother’s peace of mind. The capacity to introject is transformed by the patient’s envy and hate into greed devouring the patient’s psyche; similarly, peace of mind becomes hostile indifference.” (Bion, 1959:106) This is experienced by the infant as having taken his own value away. (O’Shaughnessy, 1992:92).
A mother who can receive the infant’s projective identifications plays a significant part in the acquiring a sense of curiosity and integrating learning. The subsequent introjection by the child of an object based on this capacity provides the infant with an internal object capable of knowing and informing, creating a capacity for self-knowledge and communication between different aspects of the personality. A helpful superego gets installed. (Britton, 1992:106).
If this process goes wrong, an “ego-destructive superego” (Bion, 1959: 107) gets installed, which goes against creative thinking. The infant then has an idea of a world which does not want to know him and does not want to be known. Curiosity gets stifled..
Bion says that “The disturbance of the impulse of curiosity on which all learning depends, and the denial of the mechanism by which it seeks expression, makes normal development impossible. (Bion, 1959:108) Therefore, “The patient appears to have no appreciation of causation and will complain of painful states of mind while persisting in courses of action calculated to produce them.” (Bion, 1959:108) It must be interpreted to the patient that he has no interest in causation. This may lead to some modification of conduct. (Bion, 1959:108).
Bion suggests that “On some occasions the destructive attacks on the link between patient and environment, or between different aspects of the patient’s personality, have their origin in the patient, in others in the mother. “ (Bion, 1959: 106).
Britton suggests a third influence, the father’s capacity to contain his wife’s anxieties enabling her to be more receptive and internally free to respond to her infant’s emotional states. (Britton, 1992:110) If this goes wrong, mother is represented as inadequate and restricted, a lifeless object, father as free and dangerous a picture of uncontained violence; this leads to the claustrophobic-agoraphobic dilemma, a deathly container, or exposure in a shattered world..
Learning Problems:
Bion talks about how the impulse to be curious and the integration of knowledge can be destroyed by envy. The conduct of emotional life then becomes a problem. (Bion, 1959:107) If the infant generally avoids difficult thoughts and feelings, this may later interfere with absorbing and integrating knowledge. This may run parallel with envy and jealousies of the coupling of ideas of mental intercourse against which destructive attacks are made. This may be envy of mental intercourse between two people or what takes place in someone else’s mind..
Bion describes projective identification as the first link between infant and mother. This can develop in a destructive or creative way and these early emotions affect the infant’s approach to his exploring or perceiving reality – which is the beginning of learning. (Riesenberg Malcolm, 1992:122) Thus Bion brings together emotion and cognition, and he says this always happens in a meaningful relationship between two people, be it infant and parent in infancy, or patient and analyst in analysis..
Gratitude:
While envy spoils the good and cannot allow it proper recognition, jealousy moves towards a state of mind in which appreciation grows stronger. This is a progression towards lessening destructiveness and strengthening generosity, leading from primitive destructiveness to hatred of external sources of life, to an eventual jealousy and finally to healthy competitiveness. The parallel process is a projective identification that is modified from violent expulsion to becoming an interpersonal form of communication and eventually a benign empathy. (Hinshelwood, 1994:143).
As internal and external objects become more integrated, the infant begins to experience absence as the loss of good, rather than an attack. A capacity for reparation develops and with it belief in his own goodness. This is the basis for experiencing generosity and gratitude, which fosters creativity..
If the individual has sufficient capacity for love and generosity, he will be able to counteract envy and yet to be aware of its existence so as to allow others to be worthy of it. This is what analysis does: it brings about insight into the depths of envy and it rediscovers and releases split-off or stifled love, gratitude and generosity. (Joseph, 1989:191) The ideal breast, introjected with love becomes part of the ego, which itself will contain more goodness. Envy lessens as gratification increases, allowing for more gratitude, which lessens envy. (Segal, 1988:52) We have a benign cycle, dominated by the life instinct when envious impulses are modified by jealousy, which brings about healthy aspiration..
Conclusion:
Klein’s courage led her to face destructiveness more directly than others. Her theories help us realise the extremes of our own and others’ hate. If we can bear the most dreadful parts of being human beings and acknowledge that in ourselves and others, we will be more emotionally free, love, gratitude and generosity may develop. Bion looks at the influence of primary envy and the environment on ego development and the effect these can have on learning. If things go well, creativity will develop..
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