Varieties of envious experience

This paper discusses Melanie Klein's use of the concept of envy and some of the criticisms of it. Two ways of experiencing envy, ego-dystonic and impenitent, are described and illustrated in clinical detail. The paper concludes with a description of a model of the relation of giving and receiving, especially of the conscious and unconscious feelings involved in giving and receiving, for I believe that it is in this relation and its internalisation that envy is particularly likely to be aroused, diminished, exacerbated, or perpetuated.