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

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical discourse analysis
• interpretative repertoires
• jealousy
• non-monogamy
• romantic relationships

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are publicly available at: https://www.normalizingnonmonogamy.com/swinger-and-polyamory-podcast