Resumo

BYINGTON, Carlos Amadeu B.. The psychology of envy and its role in the creative process: a study of symbolic psychology. Junguiana [online]. 2019, vol.37, n.1, pp.73-114. ISSN 0103-0825.

The author describes envy as a normal structuring function in the development of personality. Envy constellates symbols for development and helps to discriminate the Ego from the Other (the I from not I) in the construction of identity. When envy is not given proper attention it becomes part of the Shadow, which may lead to neurotic and even psychotic behavior. An example is given in the relationship between Mozart and Salieri such as it was represented in Peter Shaffer's play "Amadeus". Envy constellated the symbol of Mozart in the development of Salieri's personality as an expression of his betrayed creativity. Since early youth, social ambition had led Salieri to create for fame instead of for his own Self. The betrayal of the Anima formed a powerful symbol of prostituted creativity in his pathological Shadow, which was constellated through envy when he met Mozart. Unable to attend his envy creatively by confronting his Shadow, Salieri acted out his envy destructively by destroying Mozart, his own Anima and himself. Envy constellated the negative father complex in Mozart's personality when he met Salieri. The prodigious child soon surpassed his father. Lack of appropriate protection, affection and loving guidance developed a negative father complex in Mozart's personality. This prevented social adaptation due to a compulsive aggression toward authority figures expressed through defensive irony, ridicule and overall irreverent behavior. Marriage and fatherhood activated the father role and strongly intensified these defenses. As an Italian musician successfully serving the Viennese monarchy, Salieri stood for an extraordinary example of social adaptation and success. Envy constellated the negative father complex through the symbol of social unadaptation present in Mozart's Shadow. By defensively humiliating Salieri through his creativity, Mozart greatly intensified Salieri's defenses against his own genuine creativity. Plotting against Mozart's efforts to support his family through music lessons and court services, Salieri significantly strengthened Mozart's defenses against social adaptation. Such complementary defensive behavior prevented envy from further creative development and established a neurotic symbiotic relationship. The creative forces of both personalities were so powerful, however, that neurotic defenses were insufficient to express their pathological Shadows. Psychopathic aggression and psychotic megalomaniac dynamism took over Salieri's personality, while paranoid, persecutory delusion had and irreversible effect on Mozart's career. The author further clarifies the role of envy in normal and pathological development by comparing it with jealousy as expressed in Shakespeare's Othello. Envy is predominantly active, Jang and revolutionary. It stimulates growth through greed. Jealousy is predominantly passive, Yin and reactionary. lt stimulates the maintenance of the status quo through the threat of loss. Envy functions predominantly through the power drive and favors Ego development by limiting omnipotence through self-humiliation and competitive performance. Jealousy functions predominantly through the erotic drive by rejecting the Ego's narcissistic self-assurance through doubt. Both are archetypal structuring functions indispensable for the symbolic development of Consciousness from its very beginning. While envy discriminates the Ego from the Other through delimitation of the Ego's power, jealousy discriminates the Ego from the intimate Other by introducing a threatening, affectionate foreign Other. The author questions the classical psychoanalytical consideration of jealousy as a later development of envy due to the triangular structure of jealousy as compared to the binary structure of envy. The author argues that jealousy can act through an intimate Other, which is so closely fused with the I that, psychodynamically speaking, jealousy can function in the primary binary relationship as much as envy. The difference, then, lies not in the triangular structure of jealousy but on the threat, which the Other holds for the I in jealousy, which is a complementary psychological function of the threat which the I holds for the Other in envy. The paper ends with a brief description of the different structuring functions of envy and jealousy in each of the four archetypal cycles of symbolic personality development (matriarchal-patriarchal, otherness and cosmic). ■

Palavras-chave : normal; constructive or creative envy; pathological; defensive or destructive envy; prostituted creativity; anima betrayal; negative father complex; social unadaptation complex; normal; constructive or creative jealousy; pathological; defensive or destructive jealousy.

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