Ah, the green eyed monster as it is known by some.
Why do people get jealous? Why and how does it manifest and could it be classed as a mental illness?
Your thoughts please.
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Ah, the green eyed monster as it is known by some.
Why do people get jealous? Why and how does it manifest and could it be classed as a mental illness?
Your thoughts please.
There are many forms of it so could you pick one out to discuss or do you want to discuss all of them?
I am jealous of the Americans who landed on the moon.
er.. no. it's an emotion, and not a mental illness.
I think it's normal, and no emotion is wrong or bad.
But that's the action itself, not the emotion.
And it's complex, in my opinion at the least. If a person is goading another with their success, then IMO they can't complain if others resent them.
depends. i think we all have to develop means to handle/manage emotions, whether good or bad ones. say if somebody is angry, doesn't mean they must rant and rave any time something annoys them.
maybe. even still, as said it's complex and i guess depends on the situation.
If Jealousy makes someone act irrational or rather out of the norm thinking , then, can we say that it is a mental illness? or do we say it has triggered mental illness ?
What do we define as mental illness? can a changed thought pattern of a negative kind be classed as a mental illness?
Last edited by hannah40; March 8th, 2014 at 02:11 PM. Reason: changed text
i guess normal is subjective, as is rationality. IMO, that's not controversial thinking since it's normal in the UK to drink alcohol in public but in Saudi Arabia it's not. how humans think and behave is different too, even in the same situation.
A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.
Robert A. Heinlein
He that is jealous is not in love.
Saint Augustine
Jealousy is, I think, the worst of all faults because it makes a victim of both parties.
Gene Tierney
The truest mark of being born with great qualities is being born without envy. ~Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
Jealously is a side effect of the instinct for survival. It reflects recognition of a weakness or danger. If this generates a positive reaction then that is beneficial to the subject.
Cosmic traveller
Thank you.
I believe jealousy can be a symptom of insecurity.
You cant class it as a mental illness because it is context driven. Anything that changes depending on the social interaction is not a mental illness. There are some people who would argue (and quite convincingly I think) that there is no such thing as mental illness full stop - see Thomas Sasz - The Myth of Mental Illness.
Other animals are jealous, or act as if they were, as in mate guarding or territorial behavior, etc. so I wouldn't call it abnormal or pathological, just really unpleasant.
Jealous? I'm not inclined to envy or jealousy, but I was once married to someone who was (long long ago).
Jealousy as an emotion is not very nice, but if someone can learn to live with it until the feeling goes away then it's pretty harmless. The big problem with what we call jealousy is all of its ugly companions.
People that we describe as jealous are a lot more than just jealous. They're suspicious and nasty, constantly looking for an excuse, any excuse no matter how feeble, to arouse that feeling in themselves. They often engage in stalking behaviour so they can observe things that justify their lurking suspicion that they have something to be "jealous" about. Once they identify a word, a facial expression or an interaction as confirmation of the suspicion they then have an excuse to throw accusations around and to lose their temper and to "act out" in their own preferred way. Some people do that no speaking thing, others use their fists, some manage to do both.
In my view "could it be classed as a mental illness" should be rephrased. It's more that if anyone observing the person can classify their behaviour or their attitude as "jealous", what is driving that behaviour to the extreme that it's no longer a feeling but a way of life or a way of relating to people? That could be a mental illness or a personality disorder of some kind. Of course, in most cases, it's a person who's just nasty and this is the way their nastiness is expressed.
Some studies suggest that the connection between jealousy and personal disorder may have to do with whether a person values control in relationships more than commitment. In other words, the threat to them is the lack of power over the other person, and possible humiliation, not the loss of the relationship itself.
Sounds about right. When you're dealing with it directly, it really looks like a classic self-defeating, own-goal strategy. You say you want the relationship, but all your behaviour and attitudes do is ensure it must end.In other words, the threat to them is the lack of power over the other person, and possible humiliation, not the loss of the relationship itself.
But if the drive is the feeling of control or power over another person, in that precise moment, then the long-term issue of how the relationship can possibly continue must slip into the background.
It's a sort of toddler/ teenager approach to the world. Also well-known for self-defeating behaviour, but at least those conditions are temporary.
Nuh. It's a copout, much the same as people who claim they were "provoked" to assault or murder an intimate partner by spoken words.I'm thinking of the phrase 'Temporary insanity'.?
Would it fit that descriptive? If not, why not?
My own experience and that of other women I've known and read about is that the "fit of jealousy" is something that suspicious, stalking type of people work themselves into. Much as we more commonly see some people work themselves up into a rage. You can watch it happen.
And there's nothing temporary nor insane about it.
Jealousy itself isnt an act though - its a feeling. What it spurs people to do can be diverse some people can work themselves into a frenzy and do stupid things and some can sit down and calmly plan their next course of action. Either way jealousy itself is not insanity, temporary or otherwise.
Thanks. I sometimes got jealous of how adept one of my workmates was at getting up in front of a group, say at a meeting. It didn't send me into a rage. In fact I tried to emulate some of his abilities. Many times in my life I was jealous or envied the abilities of others and it spurred me to be better myself. I didn't always succeed, of course.
Agreed.Either way jealousy itself is not insanity, temporary or otherwise.
er...lol.. how can any emotion be a mental illness?
The medical definition, whilst not 100% as psychiatry is not an exact science, is good enough for me.
any action or thought/feeling that leads to emotional distress or relational maladjustment is a mental illness. And yes, one can be distressed be envy, but so what? feeling sad from berevement, not seeing one's gf for a week, etc. cause persons distress, but they're not illnesses. Envy can cause people to do bad things, as can hatred, and? people who even kill based on hatred are not mentally ill per se, it's silly to presume as such (show me in psychiatric canon where neo-Nazis convicted of hate crimes are mentally ill by sole virtue of their crime? not many, I'd wager...)
People may balk, but then humanity is an immensely complex species, so even if somebody does something "not normal or healthy" it's impossible to quantify "normal". Normality in 200 years time may be not to kill animals for food, since we can artifically make good tasting steaks, pork chops, or lamb roasts.
er.. it's human nature.
If person A is doing better than person B, then person B may get envious. humans covet, despite "the Bible" or whichever book saying it's wrong.
It may not seem rational, so what? humans are not absolutely, this is common knowledge (emotion and logic are of equal value and logical actions are not inherently better than emotive ones...)
Also, is somebody envious of you?
If so, so what? it's cliche, but the only person you can truly control is yourself. ALL emotions are valid, emotions cannot be good or bad (these labels never exist).
If somebody is jealous of you, ignore it. If they hurt you, move yourself from them.
So if a person has a condition making them constantly sad, angry, or happy, and this affects their quality of life, then this is not worthy of treatment?
Look, most contemporary psychiatrists don't think "acting beyond the norm" is a condition. normal is subjective, and if you want to smoke drugs, have kinky sex or do ANYTHING that doesn't cause you distress or impair social functioning, go ahead. The world is free...
I'm not aware of anyone being envious but as for someone hurting me. Yes and I have left well alone my only wish is that they and their oppressors do the same.
Oh, and start telling the truth about their actions. Sooner or later consequence will come knocking. Unfortunately it isn't nice when it starts affecting their families too.
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