Jealousy and outbursts of anger
Jealousy is a profound anxiety that is triggered by a perceived sense of threat, insecurity and fear of losing the affections of one who is loved and this could lead to conflicts, angry outbursts, rage and even murder. The angry ouburstsO induced by jealousy in people who have a history of violent angry outbursts coupled with substance misuse could have devastating consequences. Most of us are familiar with the crimes of passion which are linked to jealousy and humongous angry outbursts that could lead to murder. The Office for National Statistics (2016) produced findings from analyses recorded by the Home Office that covers homicide related to domestic violence between March 2013 and March 2015. There was a group of homicides called ‘emotional rival’ where two people get to know each other through association of a third person and the emotional and sexual interest in this third person brings them into the direct conflict with each other and a murder. Although, the statistics don’t exactly show how many offenses were directly linked to ‘emotional rival’ the report explains that 247 murders resulted from a quarrel, a revenge attack or a loss of temper and this proportion was higher where the principal suspect was known to the victim. Over a half of the murders occurred in a house and majority of female murders happened in or around the house. This could tell us something about the victim-suspect relationship and possibility that these crimes could have been linked to emotional rival or a loss of a temper and both suspects categories could have been good candidates for anger management and psychotherapy and these crimes could have been prevented.
Going back to jealousy it could be indicative of either controlling or insecure parts of the jealous person’s personality who could be actually exaggerating the state of the situation that led to feelings of jealousy fuelled with anger. These controlling or insecure parts of the jealous person’s personality could be either conscious or unconscious. In this sense, unconscious means from a cognitive psychology point of view as learned at an earlier stage of life and leading to automatic default behavioral and thinking processes that could be brought to the consciousness through the process of psychotherapy and anger therapy and that could be addressed and resolved. A perfect example of violent and automatic jealousy and angry outbursts and controlling aggressive rage can be seen in people who are essentially petrified of abandonment and who are termed in the clinical psychology books as borderline personality disorders (APA, 2000). The borderline personality disorder isn’t a disease but a person with a set of rigid negative beliefs that could be altered or positively updated in a longer- term psychotherapy. The other group of personality disorder that could be linked to jealousy, ‘emotional rival, crimes of passion, loss of temper and that could benefit from anger therapy or psychotherapy are persons with antisocial personality disorder (APA, 2000). Persons with antisocial personality disorder are essentially a group of people who have rigid beliefs related to impatience, risk taking, impulsivity and a disregard for the social system. Some theorists argue that this behaviour in persons with antisocial personality disorder is a result of a conscious choice and other theorists argue that it is caused by pathological issues in the mind (Randall, 2001; Carlo, 2006 and Baron-Cohen, 1992) but narrowing the outcome of jealousy and angry outbursts to antisocial personality disorder and borderline personality disorder undermines the situational reality we live in. A well-rounded person who is fit, confident and with consistent moods and satisfactory life uses feelings of jealousy to take a stock of the relationship and will constructively and protectively. A jealous person that is insecure with self-worth issues and who feels chronically dissatisfied with his or her life, someone whose moods are negatively influenced by drugs or alcohol use or someone whose moods often fluctuate, someone that lives under constant pressure and who have nothing to live for anymore could strike harder.
This article briefly presented factors leading to jealousy fuelled with angry outbursts, it explained couple of personality disorders that could be the most likely linked to furious jealousy, however, one does not have to have a personality disorder to feel paralysed by his jealousy and anger to the point of enabling the situation to escalate into a disaster and so if you need support with your anger or jealousy please do not hesitate to make a contact to discuss a possible appointment 07 505 124 933.