Invidia – the Latin for Envy
This webpage is in development.
I think it is important to understand that there are two types of envy;
1. Benign Envy - everyone experiences this consciously and it is not toxic. I can envy your success and be happy and affirming of your success without a desire to spoil or soil your achievement. And your success can motivate me into action and attempt to achieve what I desire for myself...it is a springboard to my success but not in a competitive manner.
2. Malignant Envy - the Green-Eyed Monster is toxic, and can have a very negative impact on the recipient. There is a desire to spoil and soil your success, devalue how you feel about it, and attempt to take away the joy of your achievement. Malignant Envy you may experience as sticky and uncomfortable comments or a brutal assault, or a complete lack acknowledgment of your achievement (passive aggressive). These are known as Envious Attacks. Envious Attacks can also be done behind your back and as an attempt to or actually sabotage your achievement while the attacker seems at least mildly affirming of your success. For the envier, the toxic envy drives negative and destructive behaviours towards the envied.
The progenitor to envy is vainglory, which is an over inflation of the ego as compensatory to one’s own perceived or actual inadequacies, that is now understood as an aspect of narcissism.
In Christianity envy is one of the Deadly Sins.
St. Thomas Aquinas, an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church (1225–1274) described the process of envy as having three stages:
1. The envious person attempts to undermine another person's reputation.
2.a The envious person receives either pleasure (schadenfreude*) at other's misfortune if he succeeds in defaming the other person
2.b or grief from the other's success if the envious person fails in besmirching the other's standing
3. The envious person experiences hatred (envious rage) because sorrow (grief) causes hatred (anger and frustration) of the other's success and their failure to succeed in damaging their reputation
* The mid-1700s term "schadenfreude" comes from the combination of two German words Schaden (damage) and Freude (joy) to describe the pleasure experienced at the misfortune of others.
Misanthropy is a deep-seated globalised feeling of dislike, distrust, or contempt for people, or a combination of some or all of these feelings. It can evolve over time as a result of an accumulation of many disappointments or resultant of trauma and abuse or a systemic belief inherited from the family. It is not necessarily harmful to others but can have a negative impact on the misanthropist because it can isolate them from others and society. However, my hypothesis is that every Destructive Narcissist is misanthropic and they are harmful to others and to society.
The Anatomy of the Destructive Narcissist
Envy is the fuel that energises and motivates the Destructive Narcissist, this is a defence or over compensatory mechanism protecting them from the deleterious effects of their own negative, attacking and destructive inner voice internalised from the care-giver system early in life or maybe even beginning in the womb. They seek to enervate the other because of they perceive the other as confidence, happy, successful, good looking, and/or talented in some or all aspects of their lives which the Destructive Narcissist caustic inner voice tells them they are not or have not. They may also have tried to gain the affections or favour of the other and felt rejected!
Having a negative inner voice does not mean you are a Destructive Narcissist. I suspect all humans have internalised some form of negative self-talk that can undermine our decision making or self-confidence. But it is not what is fuelling you like it does the Destructive Narcissist.
Key Figures and Concepts in Malignant Envy
As you will have read, the topic of Malignant Envy has been thought about for centuries by religious figures, then Philosophers, and in the last century or so by Psychoanalytic, Jungian and Forensic Analysists. Some of whom I will mention here.
Psychoanalysis and Envy
I am not ging to focus on all the key figures in psychoanalytic though on envy but more it began and hen jump to much more contemporary theory.
Interestingly, Sigmund Freud did not write about envy explicitly but more implicitly.
Melanie Klein (1882–1960)
Klein is the most influential psychoanalytic theorist on envy.
She links envy to the paranoid-schizoid position in infancy:
Envy arises from the infant’s anger at the “good object” (usually the mother’s breast) because it is perceived as full, nourishing, and desirable.
This envy is seen as destructive, potentially wanting to spoil the good object or take it away. Envy, for Klein, is distinct from jealousy:
Jealousy: fear of losing an object you already have.
Envy: desire to take or spoil what another has, regardless of what you already possess.
Key Writings: Envy and Gratitude (1957) – the foundational text on envy. And The Psycho-Analysis of Children (1932).
Klein is not the easiest read because she is really talking about unconscious fantasies in the infant. But she brought into consciousness, at least in the Psychoanalytic world, the importance of envy and and its impact on mother child relationships, intimate relationships, and all relationships really.
Donald Winnicott (1896–1971) Winnicott emphasized developmental contexts: envy can emerge when the good-enough mother is perceived as too good or omnipotent. Importantly, he also discusses how healthy development involves transforming envy into appreciation and creativity rather than destructive impulses.
Key Writing: The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment (1965).
Heinz Kohut (1913-1981) (Self-Psychology) describe envy as linked to narcissistic vulnerability and fragile self-esteem: Envy targets the qualities of others that reflect what one feels lacking in oneself.
Key writing: The Analysis of the Self (1971).
Of course, there has been many more psychoanalytic developments in the theory of envy, too many to mention here.
Jungian Understanding of Envy
Jungian psychology situates envy within the dynamics of the psyche, often related to shadow projections and archetypes.
Key Concepts:
A. Shadow Aspect
Carl Jung (1875–1961) believed envy often arises when one projects one’s disowned or unacknowledged qualities onto others.
The shadow contains everything we reject in ourselves, including abilities, talents, or potential. Envy signals that we desire something that is part of our own potential, but we fail to recognize it.
Key Writing: Jung, Psychological Aspects of the Persona in The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (1959).
B) Envy as a Spiritual Challenge
Jung emphasized that confronting envy is part of individuation: the process of integrating the shadow. Instead of destructive behaviour, envy can be transformative if acknowledged: It points to latent potential within the self that is unexpressed.
Reference: Jung, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self (1951).
C) Envy and Archetypes
Envy can be seen as interacting with the Self archetype and the Persona:
Persona: the social mask; we envy others who appear more competent or admired.
Self: the totality of the psyche; envy may indicate areas where self-realisation is blocked.
d) Marie-Louise von Franz (1915–1998) A Jungian analyst, von Franz explored emotions like envy in fairy tales and myths. She emphasized that envy often appears in myth as a destructive force, but it points to hidden treasure within the psyche.
Key Writing: von Franz, Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales (1974).
Edward F. Edinger (1922-1998) a Jungian Analyst and Psychiatrist
1. Envy as a Shadow Element
Edinger viewed envy as a natural human emotion, but one that often resides in the shadow—the unconscious part of the personality that contains what we deny, reject, or fail to integrate.
In this sense, envy is not just "wanting what others have"; it often reflects something within ourselves that we are refusing to acknowledge or develop.
For example, if someone is highly creative but denies their own creative potential, they may feel envy toward someone who openly expresses it.
2. Envy as a Sign of Inner Imbalance
According to Edinger, envy often points to inner deficiencies.
This is not about the external world being unfair, but about the ego feeling inadequate in comparison to something admired in another person.
It highlights an unacknowledged capacity or desire within ourselves. In other words, "the world is showing me a reflection of what I have disowned."
3. Envy and Projection
A classic Jungian idea Edinger emphasizes: we project the qualities we envy onto others. Example: You see a colleague’s confidence and feel envious, but really, your envy shows you your own lack of self-confidence or your refusal to develop it. The person we envy is a “mirror” of our own potential that is dormant.
4. Transforming Envy
Edinger saw envy as an opportunity for growth, if consciously engaged with.
5. Envy vs. Jealousy
Edinger differentiates envy from jealousy:
Envy: Desire for what someone else has; rooted in the shadow; self-focused.
Jealousy: Fear of losing something you already have; relational and protective.
Obviously, like Psychoanalytic thought on Envy, Jungian thought has developed over to decades and too many to mention here.
Forensic Psychotherapy
Dr. Patricia Polledri
I first became aware to Dr. Polledri in 2003 when she published a paper titled Envy Revisited (British Journal of Psychotherapy 20(2):195–218, 2003). This paper blew my mind away, not because I wasn't familiar with the concepts and theory but because it literally envy was reframed and in language I found accessible. And in particular the idea of Self-Envy, and how the regressive parts of the self can attack the progressive parts of the self. Subsequently the paper informed my practice as a Psychotherapist, Couple and Psychosexual Therapist, Clinical Supervisor, Postgraduate Lecturer, and most importantly, as a human being.
Envy Revisited is a psychoanalytic and clinical exploration of envy — not just as a common emotion but as a complex affect with deep interpersonal and developmental implications. Rather than proposing a new theory of envy from scratch, Polledri analyses how envy operates in relationships and clinical settings and how it is expressed destructively.
Main Concepts in Envy Revisited
1. Envy’s Singular Dynamics
Polledri emphasizes that envy rarely appears directly or transparently in behaviour. Instead, its dynamics are often hidden, implicit, or expressed through indirect actions that influence relationships and psychological states. This makes envy particularly complex to identify and treat in psychotherapy.
2. Envy and Early Pathological Attachments
A central idea in the paper is that envious feelings and patterns are shaped by early attachment experiences — especially in cases where attachment was disordered or pathological. These early relational injuries carry forward into later interpersonal dynamics and clinical presentations.
Key points: Envy is intertwined with attachment disruption and the internal world developed in early infancy.
Dysfunctional attachments can fuel persistent envious affect that undermines relationships and mental health.
3. Distinguishing Envy from Jealousy and Greed
Polledri carefully differentiates envy from related but conceptually distinct emotions: Envy is about resentment toward another’s possession or success and the impulse to take away what they have.
Jealousy typically involves a fear of loss in relationships and often implicates a third party.
Greed focuses on perpetual acquisition or accumulation without the specific interpersonal focus of envy.
This differentiation emphasizes that envy has specific interpersonal implications — it’s not simply wanting what another has, but often wishing to deprive the other of it.
4. The Role of Shame in Envious Tension
Polledri highlights that shame is closely linked with envy. She suggests that feelings of unworthiness or inadequacy (shame) can fuel envious tension when an individual perceives another’s success or qualities as a threat to their self-esteem.
This means that envy is not just about desiring another’s possessions, but also involves deeper feelings of internal deficiency, self-critique, or painful self-comparison.
5. Self-Envy
One of Polledri’s important contributions in the paper is drawing attention to self-envy — a form of envy directed within the self rather than merely toward others. While classical psychoanalytic writers like López-Corvo have developed the idea of self-envy in detail, Polledri discusses how envy can manifest as internal conflict, where parts of the self attack other parts perceived as more successful or integrated.
6. Clinical/Destructive Expressions of Envy
Rather than focusing on abstract theories, Polledri is most concerned with how envy expresses itself destructively in clinical practice:
Destructive behaviours - toward self, toward others, or even toward the psychotherapeutic process itself.
Envious dynamics can undermine therapy because the envier may sabotage progress or resist affiliative change.
Envy may surface as projective or subtle interpersonal sabotage, rather than overt hostility.
She highlights how entrenched envy can disrupt relationships and clinical work — a major practical concern for therapists.
Why Envy Revisited Matters
Polledri’s paper is significant because it moves beyond defining envy in abstract terms and instead analyses how envy manifests in real interpersonal contexts.
It links envy to attachment patterns and shame.
Shows that envy can be both intrapsychic (internal) and interpersonal (projected outward).
It focuses on envy’s destructive impact in clinical practice.
Summary: Core Ideas
Envy's indirect expression - envy often doesn’t show up plainly but through complex relational patterns.
Disruptive early pathological attachments can solidify envious affect.
Distinguishing envy from jealousy/greed.
Clarifies how envy uniquely involves resentment and relational dynamics.
Shame amplifies envious tension and contributes to destructive outcomes.
Self-Envy - envy can be directed internally within the self’s parts.
Destructive behavioural expressions -
Envy can undermine relationships and therapeutic progress.
Key Reading:
Envy Revisited (British Journal of Psychotherapy 20(2):195–218, 2003)
Envy is Not Innate: A New Model of Thinking (2012)
To be edited and continued!