Epilogue

Each of the contributors to this issue has observed sibling relationships to be significant in new and unexpected ways. Parens discovered the sibling potential as a bridging object. Kernberg and Richards speak of the sibling function which lead to the development of a sense of “we-ness.” Balsam sorts out the separate lines of parental and sibling transference which reveal aspects of the ego ideal. Graham establishes a model for analyzing the intricate evolution of the sibling transference. Wilson illustrates how the threads of psychic reality and autobiography can be blended to energize and enrich the creative process and product.

Perhaps much that is joyful and ambitious in our object love and in narcissistically gratifying adult achievements can be traced back to our early relationships with our siblings, whether real or imagined, alive, or dead. To the extent that we can acknowledge and work through the Schadenfreude — taking malicious pleasure in someone else's misfortune — that characterizes those relationships, we may experience the full affective force of the preoedipal parricidal, incestuous inclinations that tie us to our particular genetic configurations. From there, it may well take many more years of analytic work and conceptual formulation to arrive at the point of reconciliation where murderous feelings, derivatives of the aggressive drive, are recognized as natural responses to grave narcissistic assault. Resolution of the conflict and inhibitions that surround these feelings and pose obstacles to healthy selfobject development precedes the capacity to love, invest, value, lose, despair, and differentiate intrapsychically. Only then may we expect to realistically atone, make restitution in a symbolic sense, and to become one with our completed self.