Gratitude is conceived of here as a feeling derived from an individual’s capacity for being grateful, of recognizing gifts received from a benefactor.
The epigenesis and evolution of gratitude are discussed, together with other psychic processes, such as defenses,guilt feelings,envy and other human traits. The objective is to determine the function of gratitude in the field of psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
Gratitude; defenses; guilt feelings; envy