Was handymans obsession with aristocrat caused by erotomania?
It was compared to the controversial relationship between Lady Chatterley and her lover. But when handyman Stephen Adamson became obsessed with a local female aristocrat, it was a rather more one-sided affair. In fact, there were no feelings on her side whatsoever. So when Adamson started a campaign of harassment against Lady Rosalthe Rundall, it was assumed to be borne of the frustration of unrequited love. It was only when he repeatedly breached a restraining order banning him from contacting the daughter of the 7th Earl of Harrowby, and continually claimed they were in love, that things began to seem more complicated. Now, as Adamson waits in a prison cell, psychiatrists are trying to find out whether he suffers from a rare psychological condition called erotomania. Also known as de Clerambault’s syndrome, it causes a person to hold the delusional belief that someone is in love with them. The disease is the subject of Ian McEwan’s novel Enduring Love, which was made into a successfu
