Pathologic Jealousy and Psychochemotherapy

Abstract

Jealousy is a complex emotion which most people have experienced at some time in life, at least during adolescence, and yet it is hard to describe precisely. Freud (13) said it is compounded of grief over the loss of a loved object, pain due to the narcissistic wound, feelings of enmity against the successful rival, and of a greater or lesser amount of self-criticism in holding oneself accountable for the loss. Even normal jealousy, Freud said, is by no means rational and is neither under conscious control nor necessarily proportionate to the external situation out of which it seems to arise.