Managing Jealousy within Non-Monogamous Romantic Relationships: A Critical Discursive Psychological Approach

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article uses a critical discursive psychological approach to examine how consensual non-monogamous couples actively manage jealousy in casual unscripted conversations. The analyses examine how consensual non-monogamous couples navigated jealousy by drawing upon culturally available interpretative repertoires of jealousy to manage accountability within their local interactions. Three interpretative repertoires were identified: 1) jealousy as a challenge to be embraced/integrated, 2) jealousy as a challenge to overcome, and 3) jealousy as a challenge to be reconceptualized. These interpretative repertoires allow the couples to position jealousy as a contextual (not dispositional) issue that they are able to neutralize while simultaneously accounting for certain delicate aspects of their own identity, their partner’s well-being, and an ideological commitment to the discourse of non-monogamy.