Four Stages of Jealousy - (2412)

Introduction

Here are some basic notes on the "I" jealousy. The inspiration for this post comes from a document a fellow friend and missionary prepared on the defect of anger. 

Types of Jealousy

There are a few different types of jealousy. The differences between them all reside in the environment in which they appear. 

There are also degrees of jealousy, that go from slight suspicion to full obsession and violence.

Here are some of the most common types of jealousy and a little of their characteristics: 

● Passionate Jealousy: within sexual relationships, protective and demanding priority. 

● Religious Jealousy: within religions, exclusivity, protective, demanding dedication.

● Political Jealousy: within political parties, exclusivity, protective and demanding loyalty. 

● Family Jealousy: within the immediate or extended family, demanding of love and fairness.

The pattern that we can observe here, is that jealousy functions to protect the quality of a relationship, by blocking or minimising the presence or influence of outside factors. Essentially jealousy functions to secure the quality and integrity of a relationship. Which is a correct thing to do, but the way it goes about it, is not right the way. The way the essence trapped in the “I” jealousy does things often destroys relationships instead of protecting them. 

The major reasons for this action of exerting control as the pattern shows, are mostly due to security. Jealousy seeks control to be able to preserve the benefits that come from the relationship. These benefits are physical and psychological. However, the jealous person often does not see these reasons, instead they see other reasons of a subjective type.

"In our last chapter we already broadly studied the processes of envy, whether they are religious, passionate, etc. We should have full consciousness of what envy really is because it is only by understanding in depth and in an intimate way the infinite processes of envy that we manage to do away with jealousies of all types.

Jealousy destroys marriages, jealousy destroys friendships, jealousy provokes religious wars, fratricidal hatred, assassination, and all types of suffering." 

Venerable Master, Samael Aun Weor - "Fundamental Education". 

Jealousy within close relationships is one of the most common forms of jealousy in our society. 

This type of jealousy has 4 stages: doubt, distrust, aggression, and violence. See below. 

Passionate Jealousy

Underneath passionate jealousy is the fear of losing one's sexual partner. It starts manifesting through various small doubts, then it escalates to distrust. This is where activities of inquiring and investigating, even a type of spying can occur. A very covert kind of stalking may also occur in this stage.

Later jealousy moves onto aggression often expressed using offensive and insulting words that often ends with physical violence. There have been many murders throughout history motivated by jealousy.  

In Shakespeare's Othello, the workings of the “I” of jealousy are clearly shown from start to finish , where Othello out of control with jealousy, murders his wife Desdemona, who was portrayed in the play as noble and actually innocent of Othello's accusations.

A jealous person makes themselves psychologically unwell. It is so often the case that a jealous person believes that they love their spouse or partner, but really, they are only desperately trying to protect their personal security or perceived property, and maintain control over it. 

End (2412).