Text: The querulant and the paranoid litigant once occupied a privileged position among psychiatric disorders (Krafft-Ebing, 1879; Kraepelin, 1904; Kolle, 1931; Kretschmer, 1934; Heydt, 1952). Such people were regarded as inhabiting the borderline between delusional psychosis and the fanatical preoccupations of the psychopathic personalities (Jaspers, 1923; Schneider, 1958; McKenna, 1984). Clérambault (1942) included them in his Œpsychoses passionelles¹, and they found their way into both the ICD and DSM classificatory systems (Pichot, 1982). Although occasional studies of vexatious litigants continue to appear (Rowlands, 1988; Freckelton, 1988; Caduff, 1995), the category fell into disrepute, undermined by criticisms that it was doing no more than pathologising those with the energy and commitment to pursue their rights (Stalstrom, 1980). Querulousness retreated into obscurity just as complaint was coming to occupy a central position in maintaining the social compact in Western culture (Douglas, 1992). The querulous, given the current neglect of this category, now pass largely unrecognised and unregarded by mental health professionals (Ungvari et al, 1997). Complaints organisations and the courts continue to be plagued by a small group of unusually persistent people who consume enormous amounts of resources. This study addressed the nature of this group, whether its members resembled those described in the old literature on querulousness, and if there was evidence that the way in which their claims had been dealt with initially had launched them on this disastrous course.

See Also: VEXATIOUS LITIGANTS

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