ABSTRACT
Descartes defined jealousy as "a kind of fear related to a desire to preserve a possession." He was, if we look at what is customarily called jealous behavior, eminently correct. In every case it is apparently a fear or rage reaction to a threatened appropriation of one's own, or what is desired as one's own, property. Acquisition of property proceeds usually according to socially established rules of competition, and, in many cases, by stages. Our malignant emotions, fear, anger, hate, and jealousy, greet any illicit attempt to gain property that we hold. Whether as the obverse side of the desire to obtain sexual property by legitimate competition, or as the anger at having rightful property trespassed upon, jealousy would seem to bolster the institutions where it is found. Discussions of jealousy usually overlook the difference between rivalry and trespass.
