One Envy or Many?: Commentary on Paper by Julie Gerhardt

The invitation to discuss Dr. Gerhardt's paper on envy, particularly focused on some American contemporary authors that depart from Mrs. Klein's original contribution, has made me want to take an incursion into a theme that typically divides analytic schools and analysts.

My attempt is not to make an argument for or against theoretical positions but rather try to outline the frames that each position belongs to, so as to analyze in depth their degrees of consistency, their similarities and differences. For the sake of clarity I first go back to my understanding of Klein's concept of primary envy in its relation to gratitude and love and its developmental and clinical implications. Next I remind the readers of some of the post-Kleinian contributions on the concept of envy, some of which differ from Klein but still have a common root in her theories. And finally I examine Dr. Gerhardt's article and the authors she follows. I hope that, at the end, readers will be able to respond to the question of the title by themselves: “One envy or many?”