Frink, mentioning one of those rather frequent cases, dissects the
psychology of that type of jealous women as follows: "If her husband's
caresses leave her unsatisfied, she is caught between the two horns of
a dilemma. If she grants that this is enough to satisfy her husband's
'animal instincts' she must then admit that she is more erotic than he
is, hence, more 'animal' than he. And such an admission is impossible
to a woman of puritanical upbringing. Hence 'logically' she concludes
that he must be untrue to her."
Frink adds: "Undue jealousy in a man usually means that he has, or
thinks he has, some deficiency of sexual power. It means in a woman,
not, as many seem to think, that she is unusually in love with her
husband, but rather, that she is not perfectly satisfied with him,
and often that she thinks that if he really knew her, he would not be
satisfied with her. In most patients suffering from morbid jealousy
there is an overaccentuation of the homosexual component of the libido."
Very often some unattractive individual feels jealous because he or she
has ceased to attract sexually his or her life mate.
A neurotic, whose face had been made hideous by a discoloration due to
illness, was sure his wife must have a lover, because she no longer
seemed to feel erotic in his company. His way of reasoning was as
follows: "I cannot disgust her, hence some one else must attract her."
=Childish Behavior.= Some neurotics with a strong father or mother
fixation become jealous of an otherwise perfectly faithful and devoted
mate because they fail to receive from their husband or wife, the sort
of attention and uncritical devotion they would expect from a parent.
Those people are still children who never admit the possibility of
adult equality between them and their mate. The mate must be the strong
father or the self-sacrificing mother. They themselves remain babies,
constantly to be petted, admired and consoled. If their husband or wife
fails to shower on them the thousand little attentions which a nursling
requires, they fly into a petty and unjustified rage, suspecting that
some one else has robbed them of their privileges.
The Don Juan and the Messalina are quite as jealous as faithful mates.
Men leading a double life may watch wife and mistress with equal
suspicion. This is probably due to the fact that they feel unable to
satisfy both women sexually. Orientals with a harem are said to be
infinitely more tigerish in their jealousy than Western men of the most
monogamous type. I have known several married women who, altho they had
deceived their husbands on several occasions, were terribly upset when
their husbands showed too much interest in some other woman.
=The Ego Rampant.= The proprietor of a hotel in a Western town,
who lived a few blocks from his inn, was annoyed when his wife refused
more and more frequently to come and keep him company at the hotel in
the evenings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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