When one person’s career seems better than ours we experience emotions spanning from positive admiration to negative envy, making comparisons which can influence our well-being.12 Envy hurts our self-esteem, jeopardizing our peace of mind, and can add to professional burnout.3
Social psychology studies define envy as a cluster of emotions including anger, anxiety, hostility and disappointment, which arise when one person lacks what another person possesses.4 Envy slants towards longing whereas jealousy slants towards distrust.5 Jealousy is a constellation of emotions arising when a person feels threatened by the potential loss of a relationship.6 It has been proposed that education may help dampen some expressions of professional envy; however, as an innate emotion which is often intense, envy cannot be erased.7
A study of envy involved undergraduates who completed a personality test and received randomized negative or positive feedback about their results, they then evaluated a personal success essay - expressions of envy were three times more frequent in those who received negative personality test feedback.8 Most research focuses on envy because almost all cases of jealousy are also associated with a degree of envy.9
The creation of almost limitless opportunities for professional envy abound in the newsletter emails, published works, and social media of colleagues,10 where envy can sometimes result in disparaging reactionary responses11 - the adverse effects of social media is a topic of active psychology research.12
Schadenfreude - the emotional boost to self-esteem when misfortune befalls an envied other person - tends to be more intense when the envied is of similar demographic characteristics, and is more intense among men.13 People generally feel less compassionate when misfortune befalls an envied person, particularly when the others person’s original success was viewed as unfair.14
Understanding envy is important because this emotion is rooted in the enduring need for self-esteem, concern for fairness and desire for belonging.15 Envy is uncomfortable, isolating, and widely experienced - most do not admit to feeling envious, and will frequently deny envy when asked directly.16
Suggested possible ways to mitigate professional envy;17
‘I should maintain gratitude for my own achievements’
‘I will endeavour to cultivate a positive atmosphere’
‘I will stay authentic and avoid being pretentious’
Hahnemann on professional jealousy & envy in the early 1800’s… ‘I do not here refer to that low, envious trading spirit, for which the pressure of want is often the cause that can best be pleaded in excuse; I wish to say a few words about the professional jealousy of medical men among themselves, which is the prevalent custom in Germany (in the southern more than the northern parts), a bellum omnium contra omnes, which has had a most injurious influence on the prosperity of one of the noblest arts, and the one which stands most in need of improvement in medicine.’18
Across the United States in 1900, there were over twenty homeopathic medical schools, over one hundred homeopathic hospitals, and over one thousand homeopathic pharmacies.19 Massive North American medical education reform followed on from the 1910 Rockefeller funded Flexner Report,20 and many homeopathic institutions closed; so swiftly in fact that by 1923 just two homeopathic medical schools remained, and zero by 1950.21 The naturopathic occupation, spared direct impact by the Report, grew over the next decades as homeopathy languished. The modern day “late 20th century persistence” of homeopathy within naturopathy’s scope causes strain within the profession.22
Canada’s national public broadcaster explicitly and officially silenced homeopathy in 2018.23 Interestingly the same year saw commencement of a survey which stated homeopaths struggled with low credibility, and whose rancor toward naturopaths was reported to take multiple forms expressed as envy.24
CASE SNAPSHOT
Eruption of boils with concomitant ‘I know I’m overreacting but I still just cannot stand the successes and promotions of two colleagues who both undermined me and my work abilities in the past - actually, I think I feel inferior and threatened by them.’
Jealousy within intimate human relationships are normal phenomena. Jealousy outside of this context is a problem, and when all-encompassing and non-rational it is pathology.25
LACHESIS – Extremely passionate and frighteningly intense people who are jealous and envious, loquacious, and long for revenge. Intensely competitive, egotistical, arrogant, sarcastic and cutting. Their mind is full of ideas, suspicion and paranoia.26 Towards evening crazy jealousy, as foolish as it is irresistible.27 Insane jealousy; irritability; ill-humour; malice.28 The Lachesis jealousy is totally illogical, therefore pathological. Full of emotions and passions. Agonizing jealousy. ‘Jealousy and envy ‘you have something I do not’’ – this person is suffering, this is pathology.29
James Tyler Kent describes a "self-consciousness, self-conceit, envy, hatred, and cruelty: an improper love of self." Lachesis is an important remedy in states when "a person imagines her people are trying to damage her."30
Maruthappu et al., 2016. The impact of team familiarity and surgical experience on operative efficiency: a retrospective analysis. J R Soc Med. Apr;109(4):147-53. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27053357/
Smith et al., 2022. Anger and confrontation during the COVID-19 pandemic: a national cross-sectional survey in the UK. J R Soc Med. Feb;114(2):77-90. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33115327/
Iliffe & Manthorpe. 2019. Job dissatisfaction, 'burnout' and alienation of labour: undercurrents in England's NHS. J R Soc Med. Sep;112(9):370-377. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31496344/
Parrott & Smith, 1993. Distinguishing the experiences of envy and jealousy. J Pers Soc Psychol. Jun;64(6):906-20. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8326472/
Sabini J, Silver M. (eds). Moralities in Everyday Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982:15–33. Available from: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=13897055182150461965&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5
Ellis & Weinstein, 1986. Jealousy and the social psychology of emotional experience. J Soc Pers Relat 1986; 3: 337–357. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0265407586033006
Cleary M, Walter G, Halcomb E, Lopez V. 2016. An examination of envy and jealousy in nursing academia. Nurse Res. Jul;23(6):14-9. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27424962/
Salovy & Rodin. 1984. Some antecedents and consequences of social-comparison jealousy. J Person Soc Psychol. 47: 780–792. Available from: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1985-12033-001
Ulanov A, Ulanov B. Cinderalla and Her Sisters: The Envied and the Envying. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1983. Available from: https://books.google.co.nz/books?hl=en&lr=&id=1qMPyU3lb4sC&oi=fnd&pg=PA9&ots=JzvdNVEb6i&sig=wXuoI_fo-14gAW5GUlAZ7mQZ5fs&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Treharne & Papanikitas, 2020. Defining and detecting fake news in health and medicine reporting. J R Soc Med. Aug;113(8):302-305. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7509617/
Jelenchick LA, Eickhoff JC, Moreno MA. 2013. "Facebook depression?" social networking site use and depression in older adolescents. J Adolesc Health. Jan;52(1):128-30. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23260846/
Popat & Tarrant, 2023. Exploring adolescents' perspectives on social media and mental health and well-being - A qualitative literature review. Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry. Jan;28(1):323-337. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35670473/
van Dijk et al., 2006. When people fall from grace: reconsidering the role of envy in Schadenfreude. Emotion. Feb;6(1):156-60. Available from: https://core.ac.uk/reader/15455933
Ramachandran VS, Jalal B. 2017. The Evolutionary Psychology of Envy and Jealousy. Front Psychol. Sep 19;8:1619. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5609545/
Wang S, Lilienfeld SO, Rochat P. 2019. Schadenfreude deconstructed and reconstructed: a tripartite motivational model. New Ideas Psychol; 52: 1–11. Available from: https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?journal=New+Ideas+Psychol&title=Schadenfreude+deconstructed+and+reconstructed:+a+tripartite+motivational+model&author=S+Wang&author=SO+Lilienfeld&author=P.+Rochat&volume=52&publication_year=2019&pages=1-11&
Heikkinen & Isola, 2004. Student nurses' experiences and perceptions of envy in one nurse education environment in Finland. Nurse Educ Today. Apr;24(3):160-8. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15046849/
Redelmeier DA, Etchells EE, Najeeb U. 2023. Psychology of envy towards medical colleagues. J R Soc Med. Jul;116(7):229-235. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10387808/
Hahnemann Lesser Writings. View of Professional Liberality at the commencement of the nineteenth century. Miccant, 2015. Isis Vision [computer program]. Nottingham.
Ullman, D., 1991. Discovering Homeopathy: Medicine for the 21st Century, second ed. North Atlantic Books.
Stahnisch & Verhoef, 2012. The flexner report of 1910 and its impact on complementary and alternative medicine and psychiatry in north america in the 20th century. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2012:647896. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3543812/
Ullman, D., 1991. Discovering Homeopathy: Medicine for the 21st Century, second ed. North Atlantic Books.
Nelson DH, Perchaluk JM, Logan AC, Katzman MA. 2019. The Bell Tolls for Homeopathy: Time for Change in the Training and Practice of North American Naturopathic Physicians. J Evid Based Integr Med. Jan-Dec;24:2515690X18823696. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6343431/
Enkin, E., 2018. Balance and Fairness. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Available from: https://cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/ombudsman/reviews/2018-06-26
Ijaz N. 2022. The reluctant and the envious: Therapeutic subalternity and the practice of homeopathy in North America. Soc Sci Med. Oct;311:115310. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36087387/
Vithoulkas, G. 2011. Classical Homeopathy for Anxiety & Jealousy. Materia Medica Differential diagnosis. 1st published 2004. Groma Publishers, Baar. Switzerland.
Morrison, R. 1993. Desktop Guide to Keynotes and Confirmatory Symptoms. Grass Valley. Hahnemann Clinic Publishing.
Allen, T. The Encyclopaedia of Pure Materia Medica. A record of the positive effects of drugs upon the healthy human organism. Vol. V. H – L. 6th Ed. New Delhi: B. Jain Publishers; 2011. (Originally published in 1874)
Clarke Prescriber. Mind. Miccant, 2015. Isis Vision [computer program]. Nottingham.
Vithoulkas, G. 2011. Classical Homeopathy for Anxiety & Jealousy. Materia Medica Differential diagnosis. 1st published 2004. Groma Publishers, Baar. Switzerland.
Tyler Drug Pictures/ Lachesis. Miccant, 2015. Isis Vision [computer program]. Nottingham.