Elyssa Riggs
UNIV 112-015
Radioactive Essay
Stanley Rachman, a psychology professor at the University of British Colombia, wrote
about the theory of obsessions. He theorized that “obsessions are caused by catastrophic
misinterpretations of one's intrusive thoughts/images/impulses”. After reading this I began to
draw parallels between this theory and my own life, I thought that I was just trying to reach a
goal but as I thought about it more and more I realized I had created an obsession. As I was
reflecting on my own past, I saw comparisons between the path my “goal” led me and the path
Marie Curie’s “goal” led her. Neither Marie nor I had come to the realization that we had
developed obsessions, which led me to the question, when does a goal cross over into an
obsession?
Marie Curie reached celebrity status for her scientific discoveries. Her legacy includes
the discovery of radium and polonium, the founding of a new branch of science, radioactivity,
and two Nobel prizes, one of which she shared with her husband Pierre Curie. Before she
became a renowned scientist, she was born in Poland to parents from a low socioeconomic
background. Marie’s dad was a teacher who sparked and fostered Marie’s love of science. Marie
worked as a governess to save up money to go to Paris, France to pursue her love of science. She
was adept and skillful in the lab, and soon began working alongside Pierre. Pierre and Marie
began to have feelings for each other because of their close work in the laboratory and soon grew
attached. During this though, Marie had begun to miss her homeland of Poland and her family
there. Pierre couldn’t imagine not having Marie in his laboratory or in his life, so he pleaded with
her to stay. Pierre tried everything, “He offered friendship, partnership, employment, and
lodging” (Redniss 33). At one point he even offered to move to Poland. Finally, Marie decided to
stay in Paris with Pierre and wrote this letter to a friend in Poland: “It is a sorrow to me to have
to stay forever in Paris, but what am I to do? Fate had made us /deeply attached to each other and
Elyssa Riggs
UNIV 112-015
Radioactive Essay
we cannot endure the idea of separating” (Redniss 33). Marie’s relationship with Pierre had at
first been a goal, but as time went on it became a pursuit.
This pursuit of Pierre came positive and negative effects, as with anything in life. The
most obvious positive effect being the love and companionship she found with Pierre. This love
continued throughout their marriage and seemed to grow stronger and stronger, this can be seen
when Marie wrote in her journal about their family vacation to St. Remy-les-Chevreuse, “I sat
down against you and lay across your body.. I had a little clenching in my heart holding you
there, but I felt happy..” (Redniss 94). Pierre gave her happiness and safety and when he died
suddenly and tragically she wrote, “I was alone with the coffin and I put my head against it.. I
spoke to you. I told you that I loved you and that I had always loved you with all my heart..”
(Redniss 106). This just shows how much love was between them and how Pierre’s love
influenced her life tremendously. On the other hand, this pursuit of love had negative
consequences as well. Pierre drove a wedge between Marie and her family by persuading Marie
to stay in Paris rather than returning home to Poland. While Marie found happiness in Pierre and
their love, their love drove her away from her family back in Poland. Like Marie, I also pursued
love and a relationship with someone that garnered many of the same outcomes.
I met Kyle George my junior year of high school and I quickly became enamored after
our first couple of dates. His charm and wit was so alluring to me; he made me feel beautiful,
important, and special. I began to fall in love with him and the first time we said I love you to
each other was a really special moment. I remember the first time I thought that we would be
together for a long time; our high school had a prom-like dance for juniors called Ring Dance
because we got our class rings during the dance. Kyle and I went together with some of our
friends and it was just such a fun night. We went to a nice dinner in a party bus and then went to
Elyssa Riggs
UNIV 112-015
Radioactive Essay
the dance and laughed and just had a good night. At one point during the night, the dj played the
song “I Won’t Give Up” by Jason Mraz and Kyle and I started slow dancing. In that moment I
felt overwhelming love for him and I thought we, as a couple, were indestructible and could
weather anything. A couple months later in April, Kyle pulled me aside after school on a
Tuesday and told me that he had slept with someone else. In that moment it felt like my whole
world had just crumbled, and I couldn’t stand it. I ran out to my car crying and once I got in my
car I called my best friend Morgan. She came to my car and hugged me while I cried. Once I felt
like I couldn’t cry anymore she invited me to her house and offered to make some food for me. I
called my mom when I got to Morgan’s house and told her what had happened. When I got home
after being at Morgan’s house for an hour, my brothers and sister had made me chocolate
covered strawberries that spelled out “We Love You”. This was an amazing gesture by my
family and I couldn’t have been more grateful. For the next two weeks I was devastated and I
was in a slump. My family and friends took care of me and made sure I was surrounded by love.
I will always be thankful for their support.
About a month later, I decided to try to forgive Kyle and decided to let him try for me
again and earn back my trust. This decision was not met by approval from my friends and
family. They did not understand why I would give someone like Kyle a second chance. Slowly
my friends started to distance me; the first time I realized this was when my friends Macy, Kim,
Bryan, Connor, and I were all going to go to Sweet Frog for frozen yogurt after school one
afternoon. After making these plans, I remembered that I hadn’t driven myself, Kyle had. So I
texted my friends asking if it was okay if I brought Kyle and then suddenly every single one of
them had forgotten about something that they had to do. So in the span of like 10 minutes after
my text, everyone dropped out of the plan. So I just had Kyle drive me home and I didn’t think
Elyssa Riggs
UNIV 112-015
Radioactive Essay
anything of it. About a week later when I was hanging out with those same people at Sweet Frog,
Macy, Connor, Kim, and Bryan all started laughing about what had happened when they had
been at Sweet Frog a week ago. In that instant I realized that my friends had lied to me about
having things to do and I had been left out because I asked to bring Kyle. I had come to the
realization that my friends didn’t support me and I didn’t know how to deal with it. A same
situation happened with my parents; my parents did not want me to get back together with Kyle,
they even went so far as to tell me that I was not allowed to date him. So I decided to start
sneaking around with Kyle so my parents wouldn’t know. One night I told my parents I was
going over to my friend Connor’s house for a biology study group, but actually I drove to Kyle’s
house, picked him up, and drove to the local Mexican restaurant, Nacho Grande, for dinner. We
were seated and started flirting and having a good conversation and then out of the corner of my
eye, I saw my family walk in the restaurant. I tried to hide behind my menu so they wouldn’t see
me. As luck would have it, the hostess decided to seat my family at the table right next to the
booth where Kyle and I were sitting. My dad saw me first and I could see the rage written all
over his face. I had lied to my parents and I was caught. This caused noticeable distance between
my family and I, my parents didn’t trust me and always wanted to know where I was going, what
I was doing, and who I was going to be with. Because of Kyle, I had created distance between
my family and friends, the people that had always been there for me.
Initially my wanting to get back together was just a goal, but then over time it became an
obsession because I wanted to prove to everyone that Kyle still loved me and made a one time
mistake by cheating on me. I didn’t want to be a helpless girl still pining for a boy that didn’t
want her anymore, I wanted to prove to everyone that Kyle did in fact love me. This obsession of
mine had positive and negative consequences. The positive effects were the feelings that Kyle
Elyssa Riggs
UNIV 112-015
Radioactive Essay
brought upon me; he made me feel beautiful and when he was trying to win me back, he made
me feel worth something. On the other hand, my pursuit of Kyle had driven a wedge between my
friends and I and also my family and I. I pursued Kyle for two years, and even though at the time
I thought I was doing the right thing, in the end my relationship with him came at a price. My
pursuit and Marie’s pursuit are very similar and the foundation for our separate pursuits are
practically identical.
“Obsessions are caused by catastrophic misinterpretations of one’s intrusive
thoughts/images/impulses”. Getting back together with Kyle was a small goal that grew into an
unhealthy obsession because I built up the idea in my mind that everyone was judging me. I
thought everyone was looking at me like I was helpless because my boyfriend had been
unfaithful and that everyone felt sorry for me because my boyfriend didn’t love me anymore. I
began to obsess over the public opinion of myself and decided to remedy the situation by
pursuing Kyle and hoping that he would date me again. After reading about Marie’s obsession
with pursuing Pierre I found many comparisons between our obsessions, and again I found
myself wondering when our goals had turned into obsessions.
Like my pursuit of Kyle, Marie’s pursuit of Pierre had positive and negative
consequences, which were similar in each situation. Marie’s pursuit brought her love and
companionship, as did mine. We both flourished in the love that surrounded us. Marie
accomplished many things in the laboratory with Pierre and I began to break out of my shell
while with Kyle. Marie became separated from her family after she chose to stay with Pierre in
Paris instead of moving back to Poland. Marie had plans to move home and study science there,
but Pierre asked her not to leave and Marie felt attached to him and couldn’t abandon him. I
became separated from my family because I chose Kyle over honoring my parents and I made
Elyssa Riggs
UNIV 112-015
Radioactive Essay
poor decisions that drove a wedge between my family and I. I became distanced from my friends
as well because of Kyle and my pursuit of him and an improved public opinion. Marie and I had
very close comparisons in our pursuits and there is a distinct point in each pursuit where the goal
transitioned into becoming an obsession.
So where did our goals become obsessions? Where did Marie’s affection for Pierre
become a pursuit in which she abandoned family to be with him? Where did my pursuit of Kyle
and a new image become an obsession that began to distance me from all my loved ones? Pierre
invaded Marie’s mind by trying to give her everything she could ever want and Marie let herself
be guilted into staying in Paris, this is where Marie’s goal of being with Pierre and studying
science with him turned into an obsession. She let Pierre manipulate her mind and she didn’t
think twice about it. When you let someone else’s wishes or thoughts invade your own is when
these thoughts begin to overtake you and Marie let this happen to her. In my own life, my goal of
being with Kyle turned into an obsession when I began to fixate on the way I thought that my
peers viewed me. I made up everyone’s feelings about me in my head and I began to fixate on
them and soon I was doing everything in my power to try to reverse these fictional peer
mindsets. I misinterpreted the way people viewed me and it plagued me and I became obsessed
with reversing this made up view. When you begin to fixate on something that is all in your
mind, or when you let someone begin to control your thoughts, your goals become an obsession.
Syntax Revisions:
1. Original: I don’t think she realized, nor did I, that the goal she was trying to achieve had
developed obsessions,..
Elyssa Riggs
UNIV 112-015
Radioactive Essay
Revision: Neither Marie nor I had come to the realization that we had developed
obsessions,..
Rationale: The original was too wordy and confusing.
2. Original: Before any of this happened, before she became an acclaimed scientist, she was
a young girl born in Poland to parents who were from a low socioeconomic background.
Revision: Before she became a renowned scientist, she was born in Poland to parents
from a low socioeconomic background.
Rationale: The original was too wordy and there were details that didn’t need to be
explicitly stated.
3. Original: She accomplished many things such as being the first woman to receive a
doctorate, and soon began working in Pierre’s laboratory.
Revision: She was adept and skillful in the lab, and soon began working in Pierre’s
laboratory.
Rationale: The original could be shortened and the facts were wrong.
4. Original: He was so sweet to me and I loved the way he made me feel.
Revision: His charm and wit was so alluring to me.
Rationale: The original was too cookie cutter and simple.
5. Original: After I made the plans I remembered that I hadn’t driven myself to school, Kyle
had driven me.
Revision: After making these plans, I remembered that I hadn’t driven myself, Kyle had.
Rationale: The revision is more concise than the original.