This paper explores psychoanalytic renditions of the concept of envy as an emotion. The term envy is used to mean many different things in everyday language but in psychoanalysis its meaning is far more specific - envy is an expression, projection and deflection of Thanatos - the death drive. This is a particularly important concept in Kleinian psychoanalysis as envy blocks the very possibility of love existing at all by destroying all that is good. This can have serious social consequences and the second half of this paper addresses envy in racism, politics and everyday life relating the concept to the social arena and social action.