Treatise on Jealousy

In Personal Relationships

Jealousy.

You can't really have what, or whom, you are not willing to not have. Don’t worry, I will explain this to you in a moment.

But first…

Jealousy is the mirror image of guilt.

Guilt is inner-directed and jealousy is outward-directed. They carry a similar theme, one of betrayal.

In act 4, scene 5 of Hamlet, Gertrude says, "So full of artless jealousy is guilt, / It spills itself in fearing to be spilt."

Gertrude here compares guilt to jealousy. The jealous person, like the guilty person, is afraid that he or she will be betrayed. Because both the guilty and the jealous are so afraid of being betrayed and try so hard to keep their guilt and jealousy from being exposed, they tend, ironically, to expose themselves.

This is because there is a truth to be unearthed, one that must be exposed in order for healing to occur. It is also why we attract and/or create reflections for ourselves in order that we can see the self and make those corrections. We must “get out” of our own selves in ord…