Jealousy: An Emotional Schema Model

Jealousy is a universal emotion related to evolutionary pressures relevant to parental investment. In this article, we examine how jealousy can be treated using an integrative CBT model called Emotional Schema Therapy, which is a social cognitive model emphasizing the patient's theories and strategies about emotion and draws upon evolutionary, attachment, cognitive, and acceptance models. The phenomenology of jealousy is seen as part of this automatic response triggered by perceived threats to attachment relationships. This therapeutic approach fosters a more adaptive approach that would allow for integrating inevitable unpleasant emotions and thoughts into daily life without being overwhelmed by the emotion of jealousy. A case conceptualization is described which focused on how the patient's jealousy was related to early attachment issues, threat detection, intolerance of uncertainty, maladaptive assumptions and biased thinking, and problematic safety behaviors such as interrogating, stalking, and looking for clues. The course of treatment focused on normalizing his experience, relinquishing safety behaviors, placing jealousy in the context of a wide variety of emotions, making room for jealousy, treating intrusive thoughts with mindful detachment, positive collaboration with his spouse, directing compassion toward his spouse, and building mutual acceptance of feelings that did not have to lead to actions such as reassurance seeking. A wide range of techniques drawn from different theoretical approaches is described.