Smith ScholarWorks Theses, Dissertations, and Projects 2015 Conceptualization and treatment of psychoanalytic envy through Kleinian/Bionian lens Maia Kolchin-Miller Smith College Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.smith.edu/theses Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Kolchin-Miller, Maia, "Conceptualization and treatment of psychoanalytic envy through Kleinian/Bionian lens" (2015). Masters Thesis, Smith College, Northampton, MA. https://scholarworks.smith.edu/theses/678 This Masters Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations, and Projects by an authorized administrator of Smith ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Maia Kolchin-Miller Conceptualization and Treatment of Envy through a Kleinian/Bionian Lens ABSTRACT Envy, like so much in psychoanalytic thought, occupies something of a transitional space between concept and experience. Colloquially, envy is often used to mean something similar to (but worse than) jealousy. Psychoanalytically, the concept/phenomenon/experience is far more complex, however; it is something for which there are many causes and for which there can be no material cure. In this theoretical study of psychoanalytic envy, the work of Melanie Klein and Wilfred Bion are used to develop a conceptualization of envy and formulate recommendations for clinical work with the “envious patient.” Case material is used to synthesize their two approaches to practice. A Kleinian/Bionian lens may help clinicians to better understand and more effectively work with patients who are struggling to soften their shame and guilt, more fully integrate their capacities for love and hate, grieve losses and a lack of early containment, and, ultimately, build up a strong internal world from which to draw in their continued development. Conceptualization and Treatment of Psychoanalytic Envy through a Kleinian/Bionian Lens A project based upon an independent investigation, submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work. Maia Kolchin-Miller 2015 Smith College School for Social Work Northampton, Massachusetts 01063 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to my family – mom, dad, Sophie, and Emma – you have shaped me (inevitably, into a therapist) and in so many other ways – I love you. Thank you to my friends, for always being interested, whatever it is. Thank you to my advisor, Dominique Steinberg, for your encouragement and careful edits. Thank you to my analyst, Dr. K-A, for always helping me “get it” deeper. And finally, to Louis, who helped, and keeps helping, me learn how to learn at home. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................... ii TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................................... iii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1 II CONCEPTUALIZATION AND METHODOLOGY ...................................................... 5 III THE PHENOMENON OF ENVY ................................................................................... 15 IV KLEINIAN ENVY ........................................................................................................... 28 V BIONIAN ENVY ............................................................................................................. 50 VI DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................... 74 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................... 93 iii CHAPTER I Introduction Envy, like so much in psychoanalytic thought, occupies something of a transitional space between concept and experience. Colloquially, envy is often used to mean something similar to (worse than) jealousy. Psychoanalytically, the concept/phenomenon/experience is far more complex: it is something for which there are many causes, and can be no material cure. In this study, I explore the psychoanalytic concept of envy through psychoanalytic theory and clinical material. What is envy? Why does it happen? What are its effects? And, perhaps most importantly, how might envy be effectively treated in the clinical situation? First, why look at envy psychoanalytically? Social worker and psychoanalyst Selma Fraiberg spoke of the “inexhaustible treasure” that psychoanalysis brings to the practice of social work (1978, p. 104). Psychodynamic social workers Joan Berzoff, Laura Melano Flanagan, and Patricia Hertz agree as they quote George Bernard Shaw: “‘For every complex problem there is a simple solution—and it is wrong!’” (2011, p. 478). Social work, with its focus on the person in their environment and the systems that shape our lives, and psychoanalysis, with its emphasis on the unconscious, internal world of individuals, are useful and important when combined; one could argue that each misses something without the perspective of the other. Social worker William S. Meyer believes, and I tend to agree, that as “market and other forces seek to hurry us, stifle us, and strip our work of its humanity, it seems only right that the psychoanalytically 1 informed clinical social worker should take the lead among mental health professionals as modern day ‘keepers of the soul’” (2000, p. 366). Unfortunately, both psychoanalytic and social work institutions often marginalize or only superficially deal with the importance of external or internal worlds, respectively, limiting the effectiveness of practitioners. Social work professor Eda Goldstein discusses the challenges and opportunities for psychoanalytic social workers and the importance of the two fields influencing one another. She emphasizes the need to “work to keep the teaching of contemporary psychoanalytic theories alive in social work education” (2007, p. 13). This study is an attempt to make a contribution to the growing literature where social work and psychoanalysis meet. Envy is a difficult and common clinical issue faced by social workers and psychoanalysts alike. In this psychoanalytic study that is accessible to both the psychoanalytic and the non-psychoanalytic clinical social worker, I hope to make the concept of envy and its treatment understandable and yet, given the necessity of a complex response to complex issues, to encourage all of us to “keep the work as complicated as [we] can” (Berzoff et al., 2011, p. 478). It is in that spirit that I have chosen to focus my study on the work of two great psychoanalytic theorists, Melanie Klein and Wilfred Bion. Both are notoriously complex, difficult, and rewarding authors who were primarily working clinicians, deeply concerned with figuring out how to help their patients get better. Klein was the first psychoanalytic theorist to take envy seriously and make it central to her theory (1957). Her work on envy is conceptually original and clinically relevant. Bion is the most famous and influential elaborator of Kleinian theory (1954, 1956, 1959, 1962). He is both allied with Klein and has close ties to contemporary psychoanalysis (Bion was, perhaps, the first intersubjective psychoanalyst). He takes Kleinian 2 envy to a next level in intricacy and clinical importance. Klein and Bion are difficult to read, understand, and use clinically, yet their work is incredibly useful and applicable to the clinical situation. It is my hope that this study will stand as part of the growing literature making complex and important psychoanalytic theories more accessible to psychoanalytically and non- psychoanalytically trained mental health clinicians alike. There are two foundational concepts that run through this study that I would like to address in this introduction. One is the idea of psychic determinism, and the other is the model of the infant in the adult and the clinical situation. Before beginning to explore envy through Kleinian and Bionian lenses, it is important to understand these theoretical premises. Psychic determinism is essentially the idea that nothing that happens in the mind is random. Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Salman Akhtar elaborates: “All psychic acts and events have causes and meanings. All are determined by, and can be understood in light of, the subjective events that preceded them. This applies to seemingly incomprehensible mental phenomena and apparently ‘accidental’ occurrences as well” (2009, p. 227). Freud, of course, was known for joking that “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar;” the clinician who believes in psychic determinism looks for meanings, motivations, and agency in any action or affect but does not lose his or her ability to recognize coincidence and chance as well. Both Kleinian and Bionian theories operate under the principle of psychic determinism, meaning that they direct the clinician to seek the meaning behind thoughts, affects, and behaviors, yet accept that some degree of chance or coincidence is possible. Perhaps more confusingly, Klein and Bion often refer to the “infant” – sometimes inside the child or adult (Klein) or, more generally, as something representing the deepest and perhaps truest part of a person. Klein and Bion sometimes refer to “patient” and “infant” almost 3 interchangeably (with the next logical piece being clinician as mother/father/caretaker). Kleinian/Bionian analyst James Grotstein clarifies