摘要：Considering today’s abundance of psychology books, from reprints of timelessclassic works through scholarly editions to popular literature, it is hard to expect anew book to become a big event in psychology. However, a book entitled The Phenomenonof Envy is hard to overlook: as observed by the author, very few people areunaffected by envy. Besides, the name of the author, Aleksander I. Dontsov, formerhead of the Faculty of Psychology at Moscow State University and of the RussianPsychological Society, is well known among Russian scholars.From the start of the book, the author addresses the readers directly, drawingthem into a dialogue, creating the feeling of a conversation in which the interlocutor’sintonations are easy to perceive. But the seeming simplicity of the narrativeis just an illusion: reading the book requires inner concentration and intellectualwork in order to meet the standards set by this dialogue.Dontsov defines his book as “a consistent attempt to implement the new standardunder the old title: cultural and historical methodology” (p. 8). If we acceptthe author’s definition, then the new standard involves a conclusive descriptionof symbols, common superstitions, ancient prototypes and archetypes, images,and scientific facts related to the phenomenon of envy, beginning with a thoroughanalysis of the origins of the word envy, its meanings and usage. This list, as well asthe table of contents that it is based on, does not reflect the complex structure ofthe text, with its references to ancient texts, philosophical and theological treatises,works of modern scholars, scientific facts, history, culturology, social studies, andpsychology.
