The Depths of the Soul: Psycho-Analytical Studies — John Shaqi
The Depths of the Soul: Psycho-Analytical StudiesStekel, Wilhelm
Science
The Depths of the Soul: Psycho-Analytical Studies
Stekel, Wilhelm
Psychoanalysis
If we find a woman who is all her life torturing her husband with her
jealousy, complaining now that he has been looking at some woman too
long, now that he stayed out too long, now that he was too friendly
with one of her friends, etc., then it is the woman who has seen
the weakness of her own character and who, in thought, is guilty of
every infidelity which she will not admit even to herself. And in
the same way faithless husbands who love their wives make the most
jealous husbands. That is the vermuth potion which leaves with them a
bitter after-taste as soon as they have made another conquest. Their
own experiences entitle them to be jealous. Bachelors who had been
philanderers and can boast of many conquests usually marry plain or
unattractive women--alleging, by way of explanation, that they want to
have the woman for themselves and not for others, meanwhile forgetting
how often they themselves had been caught in the nets of homely
women. For almost any woman who will permit herself to do so can find
admirers, and ugliness is no protection against dramatic or comic
marital infidelities.
The absence of jealousy in cases of intense affection usually, but not
always, indicates a nature immune against all assaults. But those who
are free from this passion need not therefore be puffed up. We are
poor sinners all, and the time may come sooner or later for any of
us in which we shall transfer our weaknesses upon others and become
jealous. But it also happens that freedom from jealousy is a sign not
of security but of stupidity, unlimited vanity. The woman is regarded
as a paragon of all the virtues, without a touch of frailty. The
husband may be an ideal specimen of an otherwise frivolous species. In
these cases one’s inadequacy is so covered up by our over-estimation of
our endowments that comparisons are never instituted and projection is
impossible.
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