rivalry

n., pl., -ries.

1. The act of competing or emulating.
2. The state or condition of being a rival.

noun

A vying with others for victory or supremacy: battle, competition, contest, corrivalry, race, strife, striving, struggle, tug of war, war, warfare. See conflict/cooperation.

Behaviour where defeating opponents has a high priority. Compare competition.

Etymologically, the word rival refers to people who live by the river and draw their water from the same stream. From a psychoanalytic point of view, rivalry is not simply a struggle for possession of the object, but can also be understood as having sexual, identificatory, and narcissistic aspects.

The ensemble of partial drives directed toward the mother, once she is perceived as an object that is differentiated from the self, is accompanied by hostile rivalry toward the father. This oedipal rivalry is extended to the hostile relationships that occur among siblings.

The object of rivalry can change in relation to bisexuality. Wishes for the rival's death are repressed, and the formerly hated rival becomes a homosexual love-object. In "Neurotic Mechanisms in Jealousy, Paranoia and Homosexuality" (1922b), Sigmund Freud posited an analogy between this mechanism and the process that is the basis for social bonds: "In both processes, there is first the presence of jealous and hostile impulses which cannot achieve satisfaction; and both the affectionate and the social feelings of identification arise as reactive formations against the repressed aggressive impulses" (p. 232).

Freud thus attributed the decline of rivalry to repression, which results from the establishing of the superego and from the confrontation between hostile wishes and the child's impotence.

Rivalry creates a link of ambivalence between the subject and an other who can always become the subject's alter ego, because the object of desire is the same for both. Putting himself in the place of this other, the subject imagines himself as being dispossessed of a source of enjoyment (jouissance) that tolerates no sharing. The subject's hatred is all the stronger because unconsciously, this struggle is for possession of an object that bears the narcissistic illusion of perfect continuity between self and other. The destructiveness of the tendency away from differentiation is thus transformed into hatred and suspended through triangulation.

Rivalry, which tends toward repetition and acquires its various layers through reaction formations, is one component in the structuring of human desire.

Bibliography

Freud, Sigmund. (1909c). Family romances. SE, 9: 235-241.

—— (1922b). Neurotic mechanisms in jealousy, paranoia and homosexuality. SE, 18: 221-232.

—STEVEN WAINRIB

Quotes:

"It is the privilege of posterity to set matters right between those antagonists who, by their rivalry for greatness, divided a whole age." - Joseph Addison

"In ambition, as in love, the successful can afford to be indulgent toward their rivals. The prize our own, it is graceful to recognize the merit that vainly aspired to it." - Christian Nevell Bovee

"Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away at costs." - Henry Ford

"Rivalry is the life of trade, and the death of the trader." - Elbert Hubbard

"If we devote our time disparaging the products of our business rivals, we hurt business generally, reduce confidence, and increase discontent." - Edward N. Hurley

"Nothing is ever done beautifully which is done in rivalship: or nobly, which is done in pride." - John Ruskin

See more famous quotes about Rivalry

Dansk (Danish)
n. - rivalisering, kappestrid

Nederlands (Dutch)
rivaliteit

Français (French)
n. - rivalité

Deutsch (German)
n. - Rivalität

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ανταγωνισμός, συναγωνισμός, αντιζηλία, άμιλλα

Italiano (Italian)
rivalitý

Português (Portuguese)
n. - rivalidade (f)

Русский (Russian)
соперничество

Español (Spanish)
n. - rivalidad, competencia

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - konkurrens

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
敌对, 对抗, 竞争

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 敵對, 對抗, 競爭

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 경쟁, 대항, 적대

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 競争, 拮抗

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) تنافس‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮תחרות, התחרות‬

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