Envy and Psychohistory: Derivative Theorizing from the Psychoanalytic Theories of Melanie Klein

Within the magnificent film Maestro (2023), which conveys the complex, brilliant, and intensely dramatic life of the genius Leonard Bernstein, one scene is indelibly carved into my mind. It is when his wife, Felicia, jumps fully clothed into the swimming pool at the family’s country home, immediately following her husband coming out to the living room to show everyone that he has just completed another major orchestral composition. Leonard stood there with his composition pages draped over his chest, adorning himself in his own accomplished compositional pages like a Roman Emperor placing a crown of gold leaves upon his head. He was so relieved and proud to have finally finished a creative work that he had been struggling with that he seems totally oblivious to the meaning of his wife’s act. Now, he could offer another major compositional victory to a cultural world that had been hungry for his work.