The It is a feeling of desire for something that is not possessed; It also expresses sadness or regret for the good of others. When generalized, to a person who has envy it is usually called envious.
Unfortunately, it is very common to observe it, especially in those who believe they are not able to obtain what they want in their lives or when someone wants something that another has and instead of being happy, they regret not having it. It is a feeling that arises from comparisons, from feeling and believing oneself less than others, from wanting something and believing that one does not know how to obtain it or from experiencing very negative sensations that affect one intensely.
the envy can produce pleasure
because the hypothalamus
release, at that moment,
oxytocin and dopamine
The envy, as a feeling of wanting something from another person, can be a natural reaction of the human being, and it does not have to be negative if it does not provoke some reactions such as frustration, anxiety or desire for the evil of others. However, as a common psychological phenomenon, it makes both the envious and their victims suffer. The feeling can be mild or intense, simple or complex, conscious or unconscious, explicit or involved in some neurotic symptoms.
It is difficult to speak of “healthy” envy, since it is always a painful feeling of frustration due to some lack that, being one’s own, it seems that others do not have, which is why one suffers, consciously or unconsciously, great hostility against them.
A group of researchers from the Department of Molecular Neuroimaging of the National Institute of Radiological Sciences of Japan, led by Hidehiko Takahash, released the results of a study where they found that envy It can produce pleasure because the hypothalamus releases, at that moment, oxytocin and dopamine. In this work, published in the magazine Sciencescientists found that the brain releases dopamine when a person being held envy It goes badly for him, in the same way that it happens when he feels pleasure.
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To verify this, they recorded their results using functional magnetic resonance imaging and determined that both the envy like satisfaction have specific brain areas. In fact, when a person senses or reads about the triumph of someone for whom he feels envy activates the anterior cingulate cortex in the dorsal brain nodes; while if what is observed is the failure of that envied individual, what is stimulated is the ventral striatum.
In short, oxytocin, called the love hormone, is the “culprit” of unleashing envy by someone, and, at the same time, feeling satisfaction for someone else’s evil is directly related to dopamine, a substance with enormous importance in social behavior.
When a person has a positive emotion towards another, oxytocin enhances it, but if empathy goes in the opposite direction, you promote negative emotions and that is the reason why oxytocin, sometimes, behaves as an enhancer of social feelings such as aggressiveness, generosity, empathy, trust, and, also, envy.
The envious person is dissatisfied and often does not know that he or she is dissatisfied. He secretly feels a lot of resentment against people who possess something (beauty; money; sex; success; power; freedom; love; personality; experience; happiness; etc.) that he also desires but cannot or will not develop. The envious person, instead of accepting his shortcomings or fulfilling his desires, simply rejects and wishes to “destroy” the one who, like a mirror, reminds him of his deprivation.
In this way, the envy It is the restorative rage of those who, instead of fighting for their desires, prefer to eliminate the competition; That makes it the typical defense of the weak.
The envious person is dissatisfied and often does not know that he is dissatisfied.
Therefore, it is important not to confuse the envy with jealousy, because they are very different. The envyI would like to destroy the envied, while jealousy preserves the affection of the other.
However, both can go together and that is why they often tend to be confused. According to the philosopher John Rawls, the basis of the difference lies between possession and the desire to possess, while envy a desired object, jealousy implies a fervent desire to keep what one already has.
The causes of jealousy and envy are also different and particular; When a person envy It is understood that most of the time the problem is not the object of desire itself, but a feeling of low self-esteem or inner emptiness. Another theory, consider the envy as a defense mechanism that one puts together to keep oneself safe from the outside world. Paradoxical, right? Well the envy It is considered one of the most polluting and destructive feelings. Jealousy, on the other hand, is more common and is linked to feelings of anxiety or negative thoughts. They are a kind of obsession with a particular topic, often linked to love, and if they are excessive, they culminate in unproductive relationships with poor communication.
From a biological point of view, jealousy is a warning reaction neurologically mediated by a series of neurotransmitters that, although they act on some parts of the brain, actually affect all the organs of the body.
These areas of the brain, responsible for cellotypic reactions, are located below the cerebral cortex, which explains, to begin with, why they are often irrational. When the prefrontal cortex lets itself be governed by the limbic system, the problem begins; That is, the nervous system is activated all the time and a minimal stimulus is enough for it to react in an exaggerated and irrational way.
From a biological point of view, jealousy is a neurologically mediated alert reaction.
The problem is that in the jealous person this stimulus of irrationality can enter through any of the senses: with a smell; an image; a sensation; a sound or even with memories; the thoughts and beliefs that exist in the mind. Invaded by the feeling of envy You can commit acts that make the person you envy feel bad, tarnish their reputation with lies and grievances, wish them failure, etc. Hence, harassment, discrimination and racism have roots in envy.
Jealous people generate arguments and conflicts where there are none, they tend to distort reality with illusory thoughts and hinder all types of healthy relationships by trying to manage situations under a controlling instinct whose result is always negative.
To argue with an envious person or a jealous person, there is a formula that should not be underestimated: “Envy is one thing between two, however, for jealousy to exist, there must always be three”.
About the Author: Dr. Luis M. Labath: Physician Specialist in Internal Medicine. Former Medical Director of the José M. Cullen Hospital. Honorary Member of the Argentine Medical Association.
Article previously published in , the most important online and in-person Neuroscience training platform in the region.
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