‘Platonic jealousy’: A conceptualization and review of the literature on non‐romantic pathological jealousy

Romantic jealousy has long been of interest to psychodynamically oriented clinicians. More recently empirical investigations have emerged into the causes and treatments of romantic jealousy. What has not kept pace with this interest is a wider research agenda into non‐romantic forms of jealousy. While work has appeared in relation to specific groups or topics, such as sibling rivalry, no attempt has been made to draw together the material on non‐romantic jealousy. In this paper the theoretical and empirical material on non‐romantic jealousy is reviewed in order to answer two fundamental questions. Firstly, is non‐romantic jealousy necessarily pathological? Secondly, to what extent is it helpful to subsume all forms of non‐romantic jealousy under one term? It is suggested that while non‐romantic jealousy is not always pathological, the term non‐romantic jealousy may be a useful differentiating term, not least in highlighting an important area for future research.