DR. JOHN'S CASE NOTES : TETCHINITUS OBSTREPEROUS Most players, as far as I am aware, succumb to this affliction to some degree or another. When the symptoms lock in, tolerance, patience, forgiveness and understanding fly straight out of the window. Sufferers allow the smallest indiscretion committed by partner ( or the opposition ) to trigger off castigation and chastisement. Sometimes as an evening bridge session progresses, the severity of the symptoms do likewise. Now the victim requires no excuse at all to display total dissatisfaction with anything ......and everything. No one is spared from a their relentless onslaught of petty complaints and grievances. Nothing can pacify sufferers or make them happy. Inevitably, players who are at the same table become too frightened to do or say anything in case it meets with disapproval. Sometimes the fear is so great, that some people have been known to stop breathing, in case the sound of inhaled air might cause an offence. Egg-shells appear from nowhere to cover the floors from corner to corner. Tragically, for the unfortunate few, this irrational behaviour becomes so entrenched it becomes a permanent part of their bitter and twisted personalities. Extreme outbursts of awkwardness, stubbornness, and cynicism can quickly develop as indicators of the final stage symptoms. In such instances, practioners like myself tend to throw in the towel, in that these poor miserable souls have all gone beyond the point of no return.