Jealousy – 100 words

Jealousy is triangular unlike envy and greed. Its target is the perceived rival for the affection of a third, the good object, whom he fears to lose. Freud describes the earliest unconscious jealousy as from the child against his father for exclusive rights to his mother. Successful resolution of the Oedipus complex requires the child to accept defeat and underpins development of capacities for concern and reparation, internalisation of parental values, and the beginning of separation from the mother. Jealousy forms a spectrum between persecution and healthy competition, dependent on degrees of envy and admiration, and ultimately, may promote emulation.