Main content

Seven Deadly Psychologies - 4. Envy

Becky Ripley and Sophie Ward take a cold hard look at the psychology of the seven deadly sins. Next up: envy. Can we want what others have without being riddled with resentment?

Becky Ripley and Sophie Ward take a cold hard look at the psychology behind each of the seven deadly sins, in the order established by Pope Gregory the Great: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and lazy old sloth. Why have we evolved these ugly emotions? What鈥檚 going on in the brain and the body when we feel them? And how best can we live alongside them - in ourselves and with others?

Envy is in the spotlight today. On one hand, it indicates what it is you want, and it motivates you to go out there and get it. On the other hand, it can be a corrosive feeling of yearning that eats you up from the inside. And at its ugliest, it can drive you to seek the destruction of others...

How can we listen to our feelings of envy, without being riddled with resentment? And how can we make peace with that restless, nagging feeling that the grass is always greener?

To guide us through this mess is evolutionary anthropologist Dr Anna Machin from the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, psychotherapist and author of 'Coping with Envy', Professor Windy Dryden, from the Department of Psychotherapeutic Studies at Goldsmiths University, author and scholar Professor Ilan Kapoor, from the Department of Critical Development Studies at York University in Toronto, and clinical psychologist, poet, writer and educator, Dr Sanah Ahsan.

Release date:

Available now

29 minutes

Nazanin and the mystery of a decades old tank debt

Nazanin and the mystery of a decades old tank debt

Has an old tank debt with Iran cost Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe her freedom?

Seriously... Archive

Even more seriously interesting documentaries from Radio 4.

Seriously... Reads

Read more about some of the amazing stories in Seriously...

Podcast