Being jealous is bad for your health: here's what to do about it

Times

02-08-2025

Jealousy is a toxic emotion, as everyone recognises. It can destroy relationships, particularly when it comes in the form of sexual jealousy. And jealousy is a double bind: it makes you suffer even if you don't act on it.
Jealousy is not a primal emotion like anger. Some people never feel it at all. But it causes enough trouble to rank, under the name of envy, as one of the seven deadly sins. In an age of faith, the remedy was simply to forbid anyone from acting out of envy for fear of divine punishment. Things have changed. Jealousy and envy are viewed in terms of psychology, not morality, and if there is a remedy it is expected to be psychological too.