THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER OF JEALOUSY IS BY FAR THE LONGEST LASTING EMOTION

The word stems from the French "jalousie", formed from "jaloux", and further from Low Latin "zelosus" and from the Greek word for "ardour, zeal" Jealousy is a familiar experience in human relationships. It has been reported in every culture and in many forms where researchers have looked. It has been observed in infants as young as 5-6 months old and in adults over 65 years old. Jealousy typically refers to the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that occur when a person believes a valued relationship is being threatened by a rival. This rival may or may not know that he or she is perceived as a threat.

According to many authors, jealousy is a complex emotion, meaning that it is not possible to provide a simple and immediate description of it, as it would be for “basic” emotions like joy or anger. it is a common fact that the experience of jealousy can last much longer than the one of a basic emotion like anger, without losing its original intensity. The word "jealousy" is frequently used to describe what is more properly envy fixation. Parrott makes use of the cause of jealousy to define it. He says “jealousy is an emotion experienced when a person is threatened by the loss of an important relation with another person”. Prinz says that jealousy is a “nonbasic emotion”, meaning that “it is combination of basic emotions with other mental states that are not emotions”; all brought together by the belief that one’s lover has been unfaithful” (mental state). Further, jealousy is a passion, focusing on the effects of jealousy, which frequently get out of control.

Envy and jealousy are distinct in their object. Jealousy concerns something one has and is afraid of losing, while envy concerns something one does not have and either he wants to acquire (nonmalicious envy) or he wants the other(s) not to have (malicious envy). There are crimes of envy, politics based on envy, institutions designed to regulate envy and powerful motives for avoiding being envied by others.” In fact, jealousy and envy share some of the basic emotions they are made of: anger, fear, sadness, anxiety.