Characters
Daniel Pecan Cambridge is the book's protagonist. Daniel has obsessive-compulsive disorder, and thus acts out compulsive behaviors such as stepping over cracks in the sidewalk.
Elizabeth Warner is a real estate agent whom Daniel falls in love with from afar.
Zandy is a pharmacist at the local Rite Aid whom Daniel develops a crush on before he meets her.
Daniel's grandmother is a kind, wealthy woman who sends him letters and checks throughout the novel.
Philipa is an intelligent and attractive actress who lives upstairs from Daniel with her boyfriend Brian and her dog Tiger. She is one of Daniel's closest friends.
Brian is Philipa's athletic boyfriend. Daniel is indifferent to him at first, but eventually they become friends.
Clarissa a college student who is studying to become a psychologist. She meets with Daniel twice a week to evaluate him, but their relationship becomes more personal.
Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving chronic distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations. The term is no longer used by the professional psychiatric community in the United States, having been eliminated from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1980 with the publication of DSM III. It is still used in the ICD-10 Chapter V F40–48.
Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is a personality disorder characterized by excessive concern with orderliness, perfectionism, attention to details, mental and interpersonal control, and a need for control over one's environment, which interferes with flexibility, openness to experience, and efficiency, as well as interpersonal relationships. Workaholism and miserliness are also seen often in those with this personality disorder. Persons affected with this disorder may find it hard to relax, always feeling that time is running out for their activities, and that more effort is needed to achieve their goals. They may plan their activities down to the minute – a manifestation of the compulsive tendency to keep control over their environment and to dislike unpredictable events as elements beyond their control.
Scrupulosity is characterized by pathological guilt about moral or religious issues. It is personally distressing, objectively dysfunctional, and often accompanied by significant impairment in social functioning. It is typically conceptualized as a moral or religious form of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), although this categorization is empirically disputable.The term is derived from the Latin scrupulum, a sharp stone, implying a stabbing pain on the conscience. Scrupulosity was formerly called scruples in religious contexts, but the word scruple now commonly refers to a troubling of the conscience rather than to the disorder.
The Lovely Bones is a 2002 novel by American writer Alice Sebold. It is the story of a teenage girl who, after being raped and murdered, watches from her personal Heaven as her family and friends struggle to move on with their lives while she comes to terms with her own death. The novel received critical praise and became an instant bestseller. A film adaptation, directed by Peter Jackson, who personally purchased the rights, was released in 2009.
Stacey Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Lacey Turner. She made her first appearance on 1 November 2004. The character was introduced as a feisty and troublesome teenager, an extension of the already established Slater family. During her first stint on the show she was featured in numerous high-profile storylines, including abortion, drug abuse, a troubled relationship with her mother Jean, marriage to Bradley Branning, friendships with Ruby Allen, Danielle Jones and Becca Swanson, discovering she has bipolar disorder the same condition as her mother, an affair with her father-in-law Max, becoming a victim of rape and murdering Archie Mitchell. Dealing with the death of her husband Bradley, the love triangle between Stacey, Janine Butcher and Ryan Malloy, who is the father of her daughter Lily Branning, surviving the Queen Vic Fire, the discovery that she murdered Archie and her being framed for attempted murder by Janine, which forced her to flee the country and live life on the run, making her last appearance in the series on 25 December 2010.
Mates, Dates is a series of books written for teenagers by Cathy Hopkins. The characters later cross over into her other popular book series Truth, Dare, Kiss or Promise.
Matchstick Men is a 2003 black comedy crime film directed by Ridley Scott, and based on Eric Garcia's 2002 novel of the same name. The film stars Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, and Alison Lohman.
Read It and Weep is a 2006 Disney Channel Original Movie which premiered on July 21, 2006. It is based on the novel How My Private, Personal Journal Became A Bestseller by Julia DeVillers. Sisters Kay and Danielle Panabaker star as Jamie Bartlett and her alter ego Isabella, respectively. Both sisters have starred in previous Disney Channel films: Kay in Life Is Ruff (2005), and Danielle in Stuck in the Suburbs (2004), like Read It and Weep, those films also premiered in July in their respective years.
Hairstyles of the Damned is a coming-of-age novel and the third book by Chicago author Joe Meno. Released by Punk Planet Books in 2004, it has sold over 80,000 copies in ten printings. It has been optioned for film by Focus Features.
Starter for Ten by David Nicholls is a novel first published in 2003 about the character Brian Jackson and his first year of university (1985–6), his attempts to get on the Granada Television quiz show University Challenge, and his tentative attempts at romance with Alice Harbinson, another member of the University Challenge team. The title is taken from an opening question to a round on the quiz show worth ten points, known as the teams' 'starter for ten.' Because this reference might be lost on American readers, it was originally released as A Question of Attraction when it was published in the United States.
Dirty Filthy Love is a British single television drama starring Michael Sheen as an architect living with obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette syndrome.
The Sarah Silverman Program is an American television sitcom, which ran from February 1, 2007 to April 15, 2010 on Comedy Central starring comedian and actress Sarah Silverman, who created the series with Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab.
Just Listen (2006) is a young adult novel written by author Sarah Dessen. It is her seventh published novel.
A Fraction of the Whole is a 2008 novel by Steve Toltz. It follows three generations of the eccentric Dean family in Australia and the people who surround them.
Hoarders is an American reality television series that debuted on A&E. The show depicts the real-life struggles and treatment of people who suffer from compulsive hoarding disorder. The series premiered on August 17, 2009 and concluded its original run on February 4, 2013, after six seasons.
Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental disorder in which a person feels the need to perform certain routines repeatedly, or has certain thoughts repeatedly. The person is unable to control either the thoughts or activities for more than a short period of time. Common compulsions include hand washing, counting of things, and checking to see if a door is locked. Some may have difficulty throwing things out. These activities occur to such a degree that the person's daily life is negatively affected, often taking up more than an hour a day. Most adults realize that the behaviors do not make sense. The condition is associated with tics, anxiety disorder, and an increased risk of suicide.
Just Checking by Emily Colas is an account of her experience with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Divided into four sections, Colas provides snapshots of her life in a journal like manner. The text conveys her emotions regarding the disease throughout her entire life including her childhood and her role as a mother herself.
Inference-based therapy (IBT) originated as a form of cognitive therapy developed for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder. IBT followed the observation that people with OCD often inferred danger on the basis of inverse inference. Later the model was extended to inferential confusion, where inverse inference leads to distrust of the senses and investment in remote possibility. In this model, individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder are hypothesized to put a greater emphasis on an imagined possibility than on what can be perceived with the senses, and to confuse the imagined possibility with reality. According to inference-based therapy, obsessional thinking occurs when the person replaces reality and real probabilities with imagined possibilities; the obsession is hypothesize to concern a doubt about a possible state of affairs.
