I have commented and written in the past about one of the saddest things I come across with some regularity is what I describe as ‘the obsession thing’.
It will be a situation where an employee or an ordinary person in a non-work related setting is obsessed about some perceived wrong that has been done to them.
It may be a decision in the workplace which went against them, a disciplinary sanction, a grievance outcome with which they do not agree, a dispute with a neighbour. The possibilities are endless and varied, but at the heart of it is an inability and/or an unwillingness to accept the situation, no matter how disappointing, and move on.
I see in today’s newspaper a story about two brothers in County Clare engaging in legal proceedings for ten years, all over a 4.5 acre field. The High Court has now granted an Isaac Wunder order prohibiting one of the brothers from pursuing any more legal proceedings in the matter.
The legal costs are probably stomach churning, although one of the litigants (at least) is a lay litigant.
This story, and stories like it, do not surprise me in the least. I see it all the time in my daily work. I think there must be some psychological reason or description of it.
Perhaps some type of obsessive type disorder may be the correct medical or psychological or psychiatric description. I don’t know.
I do know it is pathetically sad and self destructive.