Greed occupies a complex and multi-layered position within the depth-psychology corpus, appearing simultaneously as a clinical symptom, a philosophical vice, a spiritual obstruction, and a socio-political force. Melanie Klein roots greed in the infant’s oral relation to the breast, distinguishing it carefully from envy: where envy seeks to spoil what is good in the other, greed seeks insatiable possession, thus connecting it to earliest object-relations and the foundations of later character. Jung reads greed as a collective-psychological eruption — the revolt of the unconscious ‘have-nots’ — linking it to the inflation of the power drive when compensatory forces overwhelm the conscious personality. The Eastern contemplative traditions represented here situate greed as one of the fundamental kleshas or poisons: Buddhist analysis (Brazier, Dōgen) places it at the root of suffering alongside hate and delusion, while the Gita commentary of Easwaran maps it directly onto the guna of rajas, the mode of restless acquisitive passion that obscures the Self. The Philokalia tradition identifies greed as both a passion of the body and a passion of the soul, insisting that self-mastery over food and possessions are structurally parallel. Sullivan’s reading of early Greek poetry adds a historical-ethical dimension: Solon’s conviction that greed makes suffering inevitable underwrites an entire political theology of justice. Across these traditions, greed is never merely appetite; it is a fundamental distortion of the self’s relationship to the world.
the first sign of rajas is greed. Rajas is full of passion, but passion that is unharnessed. It cannot help erupting in anger, fear, and greed.
Easwaran identifies greed as the defining symptom of the rajasic mode of being — unharnessed desire that distorts perception and drives destructive exploitation of the world.
, The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary, 1975thesis
greed, hate, delusion, pride and doubt. When these are raised to the intellectual level, instead of being dull, these kleshas become sharp, taking on the form of contentiousness.
Brazier presents greed as the first of five fundamental Buddhist obscurations (kleshas) rooted in sensuality, which escalate from dull passions into sharp, contentious intellectual distortions when identified with self.
, Zen Therapy: Transcending the Sorrows of the Human Mind, 1995thesis
greed, which generates and promotes passion. I think that greed in this case means gluttony, because this is the mother and nurse of unchastity. For greed is a sin not only with regard to possessions but also with regard to food.
St. Maximos the Confessor identifies greed as the generative root of all passion, encompassing both material acquisition and gluttony, making it the causal origin of unchastity and spiritual blindness.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995thesis
It was the revolt of the powerless, the insatiable greed of the ‘have-nots.’ By such devious means the unconscious compels man to become conscious of himself.
Jung interprets collective greed as a compensatory eruption of the unconscious power-drive in those historically deprived of agency, revealing how political catastrophe is psychologically driven.
, Civilization in Transition, 1964thesis
The Age of Progress made a science of greed. We have perfected that science, and now we are beginning to reap the karma.
Easwaran situates greed historically as the animating force of modernity’s drive for unlimited growth, framing civilizational crisis as the karmic consequence of institutionalized acquisitiveness.
, The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary, 1975thesis
We see again Solon’s view that greed makes suffering inevitable.
Sullivan demonstrates that in early Greek political thought, especially Solon, greed is structurally linked to injustice and hubris in a way that renders collective suffering necessary and deserved.
, Psychological and Ethical Ideas What Early Greeks Say, 1995thesis
innate capacity turns into artificial capacity and greed arises. The temper is fire, greed is water; when the temper is exercised outwardly and greed is stored within, one’s nature becomes deranged.
The Taoist I Ching frames greed as a corruption of innate capacity arising when the cosmic elements become unsettled, destabilizing both nature and the inner life of the practitioner.
, The Taoist I Ching, 1986supporting
It is even more primitive; it is the desire to have and get everything… Their ‘it’ is never satisfied, so the wolf also creates in such people a constant resentful dissatisfaction.
Von Franz, reading the wolf archetype in fairy tales, describes greed as a pre-personal, instinctual drivenness more primitive than power or sex — an insatiable ‘it’ that generates perpetual resentment.
, Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales, 1974supporting
you cannot play up lust or greed in any area of life without putting yourself on an express train to a chronically angry mind.
Easwaran argues that lust and greed are causally and structurally linked to anger, forming a psycho-spiritual triad that drives consciousness toward habitual hostility.
, The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary, 1975supporting
greed and gratitude will always be connected. But we can work on that distinction — the difference between ‘Thanks’ and ‘Gimme,’ between admiration and ‘wannabe.’
Kurtz and Ketcham position greed as the shadow side of gratitude — an inversion of receptive openness into grasping — and argue that the spiritual life consists precisely in cultivating the capacity to distinguish and choose between them.
, The Spirituality of Imperfection Storytelling and the, 1994supporting
From sattva comes understanding; from rajas, greed. But the outcome of tamas is confusion, infatuation, and ignorance.
Easwaran quotes the Gita’s mapping of the three gunas to their psychological outcomes, positioning greed as the specific fruit of rajas and distinguishing it from the confusion produced by tamas.
, The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary, 1975supporting
This desire for sole possession of the leader and the ensuing envy and greed lie deeply embedded in the substructure of every group.
Yalom identifies greed alongside envy as a universal substructural dynamic in therapy groups, rooted in the infantile wish for exclusive possession of the idealized leader.
, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, Fifth Edition, 2008supporting
being free from greed; giving up self-attachment; following the guidance of a true teacher; and following the practice of zazen.
Dōgen places freedom from greed at the center of Buddhist practice, treating it as structurally equivalent to relinquishing self-attachment and thus as a prerequisite for genuine awakening.
, Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki, 1234supporting
This same ‘right guy’ becomes suspicious, starts to distrust his friends, and ends up murderous, without even realizing what has happened.
Easwaran uses the cinematic narrative of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to illustrate how greed progressively dismantles character, relationships, and moral awareness without the subject’s conscious recognition.
, The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary, 1975aside