La colpa di vincere e la vergogna di fallire

When failure is caused by external, contingent circumstances, psychoanalysis has nothing to say. However, it can say a great deal when, even to varying degrees, the collapse is provoked by our unresolved unconscious conflicts: for example, the attempt to avert the anxiety of guilt for having surpassed others, which can result in losing their love or risking retaliation; or something much more common and irreducible today because we are unable to recognize the sense of limits, and no success is ever enough to satisfy the narcissistic demand to have it all. [Publisher's Text]