ABSTRACT
We were introduced to the term “retroactive jealousy” when a patient, whom we will call John, said in his first session that he was suffering from it. He had looked it up on the internet and found many links addressing this predicament in men and women of all ages. John described several examples of his retroactive jealousy. The most vivid involved his first sexual experience at the age of fifteen, when his parents had taken the whole family to another country on their sabbatical journey. John became involved with a schoolmate. After they became sexually active, she told him that, a year earlier, she had been assaulted in a date rape situation. Young John reacted with rage and wanted to find her assailant to beat him up. Twenty-five years later, John still thought of this girl and her assailant numerous times daily, and was filled with jealousy and rage. He realized that this was irrational but he couldn’t stop himself.
