Extreme Jealousy in Relationships

Jealousy and envy are painful emotions that can be hard to distinguish from one another, says Aaron Ben-Zeév, philosophy professor at University of Haifa and the author of "In the Name of Love." When you are jealous, you fear that you may lose a loved one's affection or favoritism to someone else. When you are envious, you perceive yourself as getting the short end of the stick. Ben-Zeév has found that lovers of unavailable people experience both emotions. They want more, and they don't want to lose what they have. This puts them at risk for developing morbid, or extreme, jealousy. Love chemicals run amok, competitor genes and social conventions can also trigger extreme jealousy.

Morbid Jealousy

Jealousy in moderation is normal. It shows that we care about a spouse or partner. Morbid jealousy is pathological. It is an irrational emotion that signals a psychopathological disorder, according to forensic psychiatrists Michael Kingham and Harvey Gordon in Advances in Psychiatric Treatment. Read the rest of this article >>