A Theoretical Examination of the Feeling of Envy and its Emergence during Psychotherapy

Abstract In this study, the etymological roots of the feeling of envy and its similarities and differences with other feelings were discussed. Envy is related to gaze. It is a feeling of having and it arises when the subject does not have something that the other has. In other words, envy is a lack and a desire to get rid of this lack. From Klenian point of view, envy is a feeling directed to the mother breast in the mother-infant symbiotic relationship. Nurturing good breast becomes a bad breast which becomes an object of envy. This feeling can arise in the transference relationship between the psychotherapist and the client during the psychotherapy process and affects it. At this point, in this study, the client’s envy of psychotherapist and therapy process were presented with case examples. Envy and idealization are closely related with each other and idealization is a defense against envy. Envy arises due to social comparison with the other. Idealization and social comparison with the other can arise during the psychotherapy process. The client’s envy occurred as a result of client’s idealizing transference to the therapist and the comparison that he or she made with the therapist. It was important to work on these feelings during the psychotherapy proces