Hey all,
I'm in a bit of a bind here. The other day, I asked a friend of mine how her on/off boyfriend was doing. She said she hadn't seen, spoken to or heard from him in six weeks. I sort of raised my eyebrows, as a way of indicating I was happy to hear more. She told me more, and HOO BOY! This guy is a prize.
1) He has serious commitment issues. He had a seven year infatuation for a woman in his early twenties (he is now 40) which ended in heartbreak. According to him, his next two long term re
lationships were devoid of any feeling on his part. He feels that he missed out on da
ting, so he regularly goes out on the prowl to pick up women, who he then dates briefly, all the while crying to my friend that he can't stand these women.
2) He tells my friend that 'The woman I date must be strong in herself and not rely on alcohol'. He refuses to go on 'conventional' dates with her, ie. dinner or drinks. Instead, he prefers to take her walking, which she does enjoy. But she would also enjoy the odd night with drinks and dinner. No, nada, no luck. Perhaps he's afraid that he'll bump into one of his other women

3) This one is perhaps the worst for me. He chased her cat! Her cat does act up sometimes, but the poor creature is now afraid of him. I was very angry when I heard that one.
I asked her what she saw in him. Her response upset me, she said that she felt very loved by him, and understood. That she had never felt so loved by anyone, and that she was not willing to give up on him easily. She sort of 'bragged' that he had been on eighty dates (speed dates) in two years, followed up on maybe thirty of them, and that she was the only one who had formed any lasting connection with him. I pointed out, as gently as I could, that while he might love her, that he was not in a place to show it or express it right now, and that he surely needed counselling to deal with his 'commitment issues'. That is not what I wanted to say, and this is where I come to my question. Is it acceptable by etiquette to say more. Frankly, I think this man is a (redacted). I don't think he needs counselling, I think he needs a swift boot up the you know where. I actually think my friend is the one who needs counselling to work out why she feels so strongly about someone who treats her so badly. She kept on saying that 'he has feelings for me, he is just afraid of them'. I wanted to refer her to a book which she alreadly has, which is Greg Berendht's 'He's just not that into you'. What do I say to her?