ABSTRACT
The most primitive emotional systems of fear and aggression are critical to the individual’s and group survival. Several core emotional systems have been identified in mammals, which are linked to social bonding, separation distress, sexuality, anger, fear and joy. The development of the neocortex in humans adds another layer to the experience of emotions in the form of symbolic and linguistic representations and the ability to override the emotional expression in the lower areas of the brain. Psychodynamic psychotherapy focuses very strongly on the identification and expression of underlying emotions and the contradictions, conflicts, social and personal meaning of these feeling states in the individual’s life. The emotions of envy and jealousy are important in any consideration of love and loss. Jealously is a compound emotion involving love, the threat of loss, and hatred. The instability of mood provokes an exquisite sensitivity to rejection by others and an all-engulfing desire to merge or fuse with a love object.
