Seven Deadly Sins Revisited

‘Greed and the Difficulty of Sharing’

In her famous 1956 paper, ‘A study of Envy and Gratitude’, Melanie Klein described the babies ‘greedy’ attitude as, ‘I have everything I want, the good mother belongs only to me.’  I want to explore this description of greed in 2016, in relation to contemporary theories of development and to show examples of how greedy behaviour and difficulties of sharing, are acted out in the clinical encounter.

Meg Errington started her working life as a teacher of English Literature and became a therapist in 1988. Since then she has worked as a psychotherapist with adolescents in educational organisations as well as with adults in private practice. She taught and supervised at WPF for 20 years and during this time has published papers on adolescence, language and autism.