Melanie Klein described the internal good parental object as one which ‘gives the ego a feeling of riches and abundance’. But painful feelings of ‘indebtedness’ to the object becomes a focus of conflict. Some clinical material illustrates the ‘embarrassment’ when a passionate desire to protect the couple and their creativity, struggles with a narcissistic part of the self, which wants the riches for itself. The implications of the conflict between the desire for good objects and the emotional expense of maintaining them is then explored in other contexts.