I worked in the circulation unit of the main library at WSU for ten years, so I feel like I've seen one example of almost every personality disorder psychology has ever identified. There is one who stands out in my mind, though, partly because he just happened to have the wrong neurosis at the wrong time.

About eight years ago the former boyfriend of a WSU student came, assembled bomb in hand, and threatened to blow up this woman (and a good part of the dorm she lived in) if she didn't rethink her decision to break up with him. Unfortunately, the bomb went off before the police could talk him out of using it, killing the man, injuring one policeman and doing serious damage to the dorm.

The campus was still in shock from this incident when, a week later, a patron came up to the circulation desk and set his book pack on the counter. When our student asked him if she could help him, he picked up his pack quickly (actually quite nervously) and retreated across the hall where he stood and stared at the circ desk. This seemed odd, but we weren't alarmed. However, when he repeated the same routine five more times in two hours (approaching the desk, putting his pack on it, retreating without saying anything if anyone approached him) we got a little worried and called the campus police. They arrived, quietly approached the patron and took him outside to talk to him. When they came back about fifteen minutes later they explained that this poor guy had a fear of "people in authority" (us?) and his psychologist had instructed him to use the library in order to work on overcoming this fear. And we called the police...