What is jealousy? Whence flow its tributaries8? Is this the Danaidean gift to humanity? Is it the twin sister of love? Do we acquire it or is it born with us? It is surely worth while to consider every one of these questions and to attempt to determine the nature of this unholy passion.
To understand jealousy we must go far, very far back into the history of man’s origin. Yes, far beyond man, as far as the animal world! For certain animals, intelligent animals, show [Pg 66]clearly evidences of jealousy. Pet dogs resent it if their masters pet another dog. They are even jealous if the master caresses9 human beings. There are dogs who begin to whine10 if their master plays with or fondles his children. Very much the same thing is told of cats. Who of us on reading Freiligrath’s gruesome ballad11, “The Lion’s Bride,” has not felt the terror of the beast’s furious jealousy?
Our observation of animals has taught us one of the fundamental characteristics of jealousy. Animals know very definitely what is theirs. They have a fine perception for what is theirs. Most dogs snarl12 even at their masters if they attempt to take their food from them. Their jealousy is the mood in which they express their possession, the egoism of their share. They defend as their possession even the affection to which they think themselves solely13 entitled.
The emotional life of the young shows the same phenomenon. They too do not know the distinction between thine and mine. What they happen to have in their hands is theirs and will defend it with their weak powers and loud howls. Many psychologists, including Percy, Compayné, Sully, Anfosse, Schion, Ziegler, consider the child an unmitigated egoist. Even in its love it is out and out egoistic and therefore extremely jealous. Young children’s jealousy may attain14 an incredible degree of intensity15. A little two-year-old girl cried incessantly16 if her mother took the baby brother in her arms. [Pg 67]A little boy was so jealous of his younger sister that he used to pinch her leg at every opportunity; having been smartly punished for it on one occasion he spared the little girl thereafter, but became afflicted17 with a peculiar18 compulsion neurosis: he pinched the legs of adults. Such experiences are of profound significance. They give us a glimpse of the primitive19 times when man had no idea yet of altruism20. The whole world was his as far as his power, his strength, went. Man’s jealousy developed out of this primary ego-feeling, out of his right to sole possession. Before man could be civilised this tremendous barrier had to be overcome. The first community, the first social beings, were the first stages of altruism and civilization.
From this period emanate21 the subterranean22 sources from which jealousy is fed. We have probably all become more or less altruistic23. But always in conflict with ourselves, in conflict with the beast, in conflict with the savage24 within us. Even to this day the whole world belongs to each one of us. Our desires extend our property to infinity25. What would we not own? What do we not desire? The wealth of the rich, the honour of the distinguished26, the triumphs of the artist, to say nothing of his sexual triumphs. The less we can fulfil these desires the more do we cling to what we have, or, somewhat more accurately27, could have had. For jealousy does not concern only what one actually possesses. Women may be jealous [Pg 68]of men they do not love and do not even possess. They simply begrudge28 the other woman her conquest. Don Juans know this very well. The best way of conquering a woman is still the old, old way: to make love to her friend. In this case wounded vanity plays a part, of course. But what is vanity but the over-estimation of the Me, the striking emphasis laid on one’s own value? And thus we again come back to the root of all jealousy: the pleasure in one’s own possession, in one’s embellished29 egoism.
Jealousy need not always have a sexual motive30. A woman may be jealous of her husband’s friend because he has been more successful than her husband. Her husband is her possession. He ought to be the foremost, he ought to have achieved the others’ successes, so that his fame should revert31 to her too. Pupils are jealous of one another even though not a trace of a sexual motive may be demonstrable. We may be jealous of another’s horses, dogs, furniture, virtues33, honours, friendships, responsibilities, etc. Behind it there always is our brutal34 egoism, the desire for another’s possessions, or at least the fear of losing one’s own possession.
Jealousy is generally regarded as a pre-eminently feminine quality. Erroneously so. It would be more nearly correct to say that the heroic side of jealousy is to be found only in men. It is not a matter merely of chance [Pg 69]that we have no feminine counterpart to Othello, Herod and the Count in Hauptmann’s “Griselda.” Jealousy in women has received a social valuation from men; it always has a smack35 of the ridiculous, pathological, or unjustified. It is a subject for satire38, and is more often a comedy motive than a tragic39 reproach. This is due to the fact that woman’s love is monopolised by men, whereas a man’s loyalty40 is demanded by most women but attained41 only by very few. A man’s infidelity is not a dramatic reproach because it is a daily occurrence and wholly in accord with the lax conception of the majority. A woman’s infidelity is an offence against the sacred mandates42 imposed by—men. And therefore the jealousy of a man—be the subject of the passion a fool, a fop, an old man, or some other laughable type destined43 for cuckoldry—is a struggle for just possession, a conflict which always has an heroic effect, whereas a woman’s jealousy is always a dispute for the sole possession of a man, a right which is disputed by a great majority (namely, the men, and even some women).
But there are men and women who are not jealous even though they love intensely. And with this we hit upon a second and important root of jealousy. Only one who contemplates44 an act of disloyalty against the object of his jealousy, or who, as a result of doubts about his own erotic powers, thinks he cannot gratify that object can be jealous. Of course I am not [Pg 70]now speaking of justified37 jealousy based on facts, but of baseless, unjustified jealousy. Whence comes the suspicion that attributes infidelity to the beloved being? What is the driving power in these cases? Only the knowledge of one’s true nature. Only they can be jealous, jealous without cause, who cannot guarantee for themselves. In other words: jealousy is the projection45 of one’s own shortcomings upon the beloved.
If we find a woman who is all her life torturing her husband with her jealousy, complaining now that he has been looking at some woman too long, now that he stayed out too long, now that he was too friendly with one of her friends, etc., then it is the woman who has seen the weakness of her own character and who, in thought, is guilty of every infidelity which she will not admit even to herself. And in the same way faithless husbands who love their wives make the most jealous husbands. That is the vermuth potion which leaves with them a bitter after-taste as soon as they have made another conquest. Their own experiences entitle them to be jealous. Bachelors who had been philanderers and can boast of many conquests usually marry plain or unattractive women—alleging, by way of explanation, that they want to have the woman for themselves and not for others, meanwhile forgetting how often they themselves had been caught in the nets of homely46 women. For almost [Pg 71]any woman who will permit herself to do so can find admirers, and ugliness is no protection against dramatic or comic marital47 infidelities.
The absence of jealousy in cases of intense affection usually, but not always, indicates a nature immune against all assaults. But those who are free from this passion need not therefore be puffed48 up. We are poor sinners all, and the time may come sooner or later for any of us in which we shall transfer our weaknesses upon others and become jealous. But it also happens that freedom from jealousy is a sign not of security but of stupidity, unlimited49 vanity. The woman is regarded as a paragon50 of all the virtues, without a touch of frailty51. The husband may be an ideal specimen52 of an otherwise frivolous53 species. In these cases one’s inadequacy54 is so covered up by our over-estimation of our endowments that comparisons are never instituted and projection is impossible.
Consequently baseless jealousy and baseless confidence will always be. And therefore we shall not follow Bleuler in his estimation of jealousy as one of the “unconscious commonplaces” which makes love valueless as “the plant-louse does the rose-bud.” We shall recognise in it, when it is baseless, a disease of the soul occurring in persons whose cravings and realities do not coincide and who have with a heavy heart been forced to the recognition after cruel inner conflicts that their virtue32 is only an over-emphatic opposition55 to their weakness. Their jealousy has taken on a pathological [Pg 72](neurotic) character because of this repression56 and this relegating57 of their own desires into the unconscious. That is why all the logic36 of realities is effectless when opposed to the logic of the unconscious. One might almost say that jealousy is a cultural disease which results from the restrictions58 on our love-life imposed by law and morality. If so-called “free love” ever becomes a fact there will be far fewer cases of jealousy than we have to-day. That sounds plausible59. But will life be more worth living when there will be no more jealousy? We gladly put up with jealousy if only our costly60 treasure of love continues secure. Would a life free from all jealousy and pain, a life without passions, be worth while? Is it not a fact that our possessions are most highly valued by us at the moment when we fear to lose them?... The sweetest harmonies are to be found only in contrasts. The wagon61 of life rolls with greater tempo62 over the endless lonely roads when it is harnessed to the passions.
点击收听单词发音
1 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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2 fathomless | |
a.深不可测的 | |
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3 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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4 narrated | |
v.故事( narrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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5 slaughters | |
v.屠杀,杀戮,屠宰( slaughter的第三人称单数 ) | |
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6 frightful | |
adj.可怕的;讨厌的 | |
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7 humiliates | |
使蒙羞,羞辱,使丢脸( humiliate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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8 tributaries | |
n. 支流 | |
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9 caresses | |
爱抚,抚摸( caress的名词复数 ) | |
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10 whine | |
v.哀号,号哭;n.哀鸣 | |
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11 ballad | |
n.歌谣,民谣,流行爱情歌曲 | |
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12 snarl | |
v.吼叫,怒骂,纠缠,混乱;n.混乱,缠结,咆哮 | |
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13 solely | |
adv.仅仅,唯一地 | |
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14 attain | |
vt.达到,获得,完成 | |
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15 intensity | |
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度 | |
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16 incessantly | |
ad.不停地 | |
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17 afflicted | |
使受痛苦,折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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19 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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20 altruism | |
n.利他主义,不自私 | |
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21 emanate | |
v.发自,来自,出自 | |
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22 subterranean | |
adj.地下的,地表下的 | |
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23 altruistic | |
adj.无私的,为他人着想的 | |
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24 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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25 infinity | |
n.无限,无穷,大量 | |
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26 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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27 accurately | |
adv.准确地,精确地 | |
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28 begrudge | |
vt.吝啬,羡慕 | |
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29 embellished | |
v.美化( embellish的过去式和过去分词 );装饰;修饰;润色 | |
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30 motive | |
n.动机,目的;adv.发动的,运动的 | |
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31 revert | |
v.恢复,复归,回到 | |
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32 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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33 virtues | |
美德( virtue的名词复数 ); 德行; 优点; 长处 | |
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34 brutal | |
adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的 | |
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35 smack | |
vt.拍,打,掴;咂嘴;vi.含有…意味;n.拍 | |
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36 logic | |
n.逻辑(学);逻辑性 | |
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37 justified | |
a.正当的,有理的 | |
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38 satire | |
n.讽刺,讽刺文学,讽刺作品 | |
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39 tragic | |
adj.悲剧的,悲剧性的,悲惨的 | |
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40 loyalty | |
n.忠诚,忠心 | |
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41 attained | |
(通常经过努力)实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 ); 达到; 获得; 达到(某年龄、水平、状况) | |
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42 mandates | |
托管(mandate的第三人称单数形式) | |
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43 destined | |
adj.命中注定的;(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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44 contemplates | |
深思,细想,仔细考虑( contemplate的第三人称单数 ); 注视,凝视; 考虑接受(发生某事的可能性); 深思熟虑,沉思,苦思冥想 | |
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45 projection | |
n.发射,计划,突出部分 | |
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46 homely | |
adj.家常的,简朴的;不漂亮的 | |
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47 marital | |
adj.婚姻的,夫妻的 | |
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48 puffed | |
adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 );喷着汽(或烟)移动;吹嘘;吹捧 | |
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49 unlimited | |
adj.无限的,不受控制的,无条件的 | |
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50 paragon | |
n.模范,典型 | |
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51 frailty | |
n.脆弱;意志薄弱 | |
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52 specimen | |
n.样本,标本 | |
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53 frivolous | |
adj.轻薄的;轻率的 | |
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54 inadequacy | |
n.无法胜任,信心不足 | |
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55 opposition | |
n.反对,敌对 | |
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56 repression | |
n.镇压,抑制,抑压 | |
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57 relegating | |
v.使降级( relegate的现在分词 );使降职;转移;把…归类 | |
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58 restrictions | |
约束( restriction的名词复数 ); 管制; 制约因素; 带限制性的条件(或规则) | |
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59 plausible | |
adj.似真实的,似乎有理的,似乎可信的 | |
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60 costly | |
adj.昂贵的,价值高的,豪华的 | |
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61 wagon | |
n.四轮马车,手推车,面包车;无盖运货列车 | |
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62 tempo | |
n.(音乐的)速度;节奏,行进速度 | |
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