What is envy?
Envy is a totally distorted feeling of admiration that is associated with the desire to possess ‘something’ (even success) that belongs to “the other”, and also the desire for “the other” to stop having or enjoying that ‘something’. ‘. We should also include in the concept the resentment that appears in the envious person if he does not achieve both objectives (getting what the “other” has and that the “other” stops having it).
If envy involved ‘only’ the desire to possess what “the other person” has, it would not be ‘necessarily’ bad. What’s more, it could even be an incentive for personal improvement that would allow, by observing others, to know a model to follow and imitate. In this case, there are even those who speak of “good or positive envy”, which for me is a gross semantic error, since to describe imitation and identification as mechanisms of personal maturation, the psychological lexicon has more appropriate terms than that of envy, a word that is inevitably related to one of the seven deadly sins. And a sin cannot be “good”, right?
Is there a healthy and an unhealthy envy?
Colloquially, the term “healthy envy” is used as an unlucky euphemism, which expresses admiration or the ‘healthy’ desire to have the same luck as a person who is usually part of the social circle close to the envious person. It is curious that most people, when referring to the fortune or success of famous people who are far from their reality, usually talk about ‘admiration’, ‘desire’, ‘I would like…’, instead of using the term “I feel healthy envy for so-and-so…”.
A sin cannot be “good” right?
Perhaps, the most appropriate thing would be to talk about: Be that as it may, the binomial “healthy envy” contains two clearly contradictory terms, because if, if necessary, admiration turns into envy, it is very difficult for it to be “healthy.” ” (if it actually exists; and let us also remember that it is a ‘sin’).
- Positive envy (in which we admire and desire what “the other” has).
- Destructive envy (in which you wish that “the other” stops having what you long to possess).
From a psychological and psychiatric perspective, it is not risky to affirm that, as happens with other feelings such as fear or sadness (which can become pathological disorders such as phobias or depression respectively), the feeling of “envy” can also derive from in a neurotic type conflict, and even psychotic in the worst cases, if it is not adequately controlled by the individual.
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pathological envy
Envy can become a serious problem when it becomes the central emotion that governs the individual’s life. There are symptoms that warn of this situation, for example, when the suffering is so intense that it generates anger due to the desire to strip the rival of his possessions. These are situations in which physical violence or criminal acts of any kind can occur, especially if the envious person is incapable of regulating and controlling his or her emotions.
Envy can become a serious problem when it becomes the central emotion that governs the individual’s life.
Although there are personality characteristics that predispose to envy, let us consider that socio-cultural and environmental factors also play a very important role in creating the pathological personality of the envious person.
His profile (that of the envious person) would be that of a person with a low perception of his self-worth, who does not like himself, egocentric, with difficulty in establishing interpersonal relationships and with a clear tendency towards narcissistic histrionics. They tend to be mediocre and immature individuals and we could basically summarize their traits by saying that they have a very clear dissatisfaction with themselves.
Finish reading the full article on Clotilde Sarrió’s specialized blog.
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