# Persona problematica



## Nicknamed

Ciao a tutti,
con quale aggettivo si può descrivere una persona problematica, ossia che si crea continuamente dei problemi anziché cercare delle soluzioni per risolverli?
Ho provato con "problematic" ma non ne sono sicuro che sia adatto al contesto.

Grazie


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## Paulfromitaly

E' fondamentale che tu scriva:
- la *frase originale intera*

e ci dia qualche informazione a proposito del *contesto*, grazie 

Cosa significa "*aggiungere il contesto*"?
*Come e in che forum creare - modificare - impostare correttamente una discussione*


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## Nicknamed

Paulfromitaly said:


> E' fondamentale che tu scriva:
> - la *frase originale intera*
> 
> e ci dia qualche informazione a proposito del *contesto*, grazie
> 
> Cosa significa "*aggiungere il contesto*"?
> *Come e in che forum creare - modificare - impostare correttamente una discussione*



Frase originale intera: "Ernesto è una persona problematica, si crea continuamente problemi, ieri non è uscito perché secondo lui non aveva dei bei pantaloni, oggi non ha dato l'esame di storia perché si vergognava di farsi vedere con la sua auto, e la scorsa settimana non è andato al matrimonio dello zio perché si vergognava di presentargli la sua fidanzata".
Il contesto è il carattere di una persona.


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## rrose17

There are many, many ways to say this I guess. To be generous, of course, you could say Ernesto has anxiety issues. Povero. But the most obvious to me is simply _Ernesto is difficult. _You might say _Ernesto has a problematic personality _but this one sounds a little cold. I suppose it depends on how sympathetic you want to sound.


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## You little ripper!

_There’s always some problem with Ernesto. I just don’t understand him! Yesterday he didn’t  go out ........ _It’s not a literal translation but what I would say in that context.


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## Dusibello

In US colloquial/slang usage I'd go this way: Ernesto is a pain.

Or: Ernesto is a hassle.

Both suggest that Ernesto's issues inconvenience and/or bother the people around him.


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## theartichoke

rrose17 said:


> There are many, many ways to say this I guess. To be generous, of course, you could say Ernesto has anxiety issues. Povero. But the most obvious to me is simply _Ernesto is difficult. _You might say _Ernesto has a problematic personality _but this one sounds a little cold. I suppose it depends on how sympathetic you want to sound.



"Difficult" would be the word I'd use too. In addition to _Ernesto is difficult_, you could say _Ernesto is a difficult individual / person [to deal with]_, or _Ernesto has a difficult personality_. If you want to be very sympathetic (the opposite end of the spectrum from _Ernesto is a hassle / pain_), then you could use _Ernesto has his difficulties_.


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## metazoan

It sounds like the original aims to describe Ernesto, and not so much his effect on us (which _difficult_ does). A key phrase is "si crea continuamente problemi", but the more literal translation "always creating problems" is again more about his effect on us. Maybe, "Ernesto is a complicated person, always inventing problems."


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## ArthurHolo

I'm not sure, but the word troublesome might be also used here


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## King Crimson

ArthurHolo said:


> I'm not sure, but the word troublesome might be also used here



Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this only applies to problems that someone may create to others, while the OP specified he was interested in a term that refers to problems someone create to themselves, as metazoan already pointed out in post #8 (and whether this creates problems to others, _too_, in the process is not known, but in any case it would be a side effect).
So maybe, in addition to the translation suggested by metazoan, could we also say "troubled" rather than "troublesome"? But I have an idea we could come up with different translations depending on the exact context.


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## Pietruzzo

King Crimson said:


> the OP specified he was interested in a term that refers to problems someone create to themselves,


In that case the word "problematico" is wrong.
Post edit: 
Apparently it isn't. See below.


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## Mary49

Pietruzzo said:


> In that case the word "problematico" is wrong.


No:
problemàtico in Vocabolario - Treccani
"di persona che è portata a porsi dei problemi, a scorgere le difficoltà e le contraddizioni di concetti, atteggiamenti, situazioni".
Problematico > significato - Dizionario italiano De Mauro
"3. di qcn., che si pone problemi sempre nuovi, che individua gli aspetti più complessi di una situazione, una condizione, ecc.".


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## Paulfromitaly

Mary49 said:


> No:
> problemàtico in Vocabolario - Treccani
> "di persona che è portata a porsi dei problemi, a scorgere le difficoltà e le contraddizioni di concetti, atteggiamenti, situazioni".
> Problematico > significato - Dizionario italiano De Mauro
> "3. di qcn., che si pone problemi sempre nuovi, che individua gli aspetti più complessi di una situazione, una condizione, ecc.".


Beh, si e no.
Nonostante le definizioni che tu hai citato siano incontestabili, l'OP ha spiegato chiaramente che quello non è il significato di "problematico" che lui intende.
Avrebbe dovuto usare un'altro aggettivo? Forse.



Nicknamed said:


> si *crea* continuamente problemi


Si crea problemi, non se li pone.


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## Odysseus54

Nel Treccani manca un terzo significato, che invece troviamo come primo nel Garzanti :



> *1.* che è, che costituisce un problema, un caso difficile da risolvere:_ una situazione problematica_ | incerto, poco probabile:_ per ora l’intesa resta problematica_;_ un’impresa il cui buon esito appare problematico_



Nel linguaggio quotidiano, mi pare che questo significato si sia ulteriormente spostato verso un piu' generico 'difficile' o simili. 

Nell' OP invece si va direttamente verso 'uno che si fa problemi' - per affinita', credo, anche se mi pare una forzatura. 

In inglese, magari "he is trouble", "he's got issues".


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## theartichoke

Odysseus54 said:


> In inglese, magari "he is trouble", "he's got issues"



Did you mean to put a "d" on the end of that? "He is troubled" = "he's got issues," but "he is trouble" means something else altogether.


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## Odysseus54

theartichoke said:


> Did you mean to put a "d" on the end of that? "He is troubled" = "he's got issues," but "he is trouble" means something else altogether.



No, I meant it the way I wrote it, trying to cover a range of possible meanings. 

"Sicuro che vogliamo xy nel team? E' problematico, non va d'accordo con nessuno"  "are you sure we want xy in the team? He is trouble, he can't get along with anybody" 

And

"Chi, Guidalberto? È problematico, non gli va mai bene niente"  "Who, G.? He's got issues. He never agrees with anything" 

In the first example, the guy likes to antagonize.  In the second example, he is hypercritical.


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## ohbice

Nicknamed said:


> Il contesto è il carattere di una persona.


Ernesto mi pare una persona insicura, forse un po' spostata.
Per chi avesse voglia di leggersela, c'è una discussione sul forum _solo italiano _dedicata al termine *menoso*, che secondo me si adatta splendidamente all'Ernesto in questione: *ttps://forum.wordreference.com/threads/menoso.2885242/*


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## italtrav

Dipende sempre del contesto, ma usiamo anche in inglese contemporaneo PITA o pita, 'Pain In The Ass.'
E.g., That customer is a real pita; she always buys something for 25¢ and pays with a $20 bill.
pita - Dizionario inglese-italiano WordReference


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## Paulfromitaly

It's worth pointing out, once again that


Nicknamed said:


> "Ernesto è una persona problematica, *si* crea continuamente problemi


It does NOT mean troublesome or trouble maker.
I'd call someone behaving like that "disturbed".


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## italtrav

Paulfromitaly said:


> It's worth pointing out, once again that
> 
> It does NOT mean troublesome or trouble maker.
> I'd call someone behaving like that "disturbed".


If the point is that Ernesto creates difficulties for himself, then I would agree. My own sense of PITA is that it does not exclude self-created problems, especially insofar as they create in turn problems for others. Failure to show up where and when expected strikes me as such an instance.


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## Paulfromitaly

italtrav said:


> If the point is that Ernesto creates difficulties for himself, then I would agree


That's what I inferred from the OP's explanation, although it's not implied in the definition of "persona problematica" which is not, in my opinion, the correct term.


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## ohbice

Nel WR Dictionary c'è *angustiarsi*, che è abbastanza utile per capire il significato di menarsela: distress oneself, torment oneself.


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## King Crimson

Nicknamed said:


> "Ernesto è una persona problematica, si crea continuamente problemi, ieri non è uscito perché secondo lui non aveva dei bei pantaloni, oggi non ha dato l'esame di storia perché si vergognava di farsi vedere con la sua auto, e la scorsa settimana non è andato al matrimonio dello zio perché si vergognava di presentargli la sua fidanzata".



I agree that "problematico" isn't probably the best option here due to its ambiguity, but the meaning is quite clear: Ernesto is always creating problems for himself and this may or may not create problems for others, but this should be a secondary aspect in our translation. Perhaps we don't have a single word to say that and need to make use of a circumlocution like "si crea continuamente problemi" or "si fa un sacco di problemi" (which is even more idiomatic).
Based on the messages so far, I'm beginning to think we need a circumlocution in English as well.


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## theartichoke

King Crimson said:


> I agree that "problematico" isn't probably the best option here due to its ambiguity, but the meaning is quite clear: Ernesto is always creating problems for himself and this may or may not create problems for others, but this should be a secondary aspect in our translation.
> Based on the messages so far, I'm beginning to think we need a circumlocution in English as well.



_Ernesto is his own worst enemy_? _Ernesto makes his own life difficult_?


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## Odysseus54

ohbice said:


> Nel WR Dictionary c'è *angustiarsi*, che è abbastanza utile per capire il significato di menarsela: distress oneself, torment oneself.



"Menarsela" is very much on target here.  Except that if I (with my 20 years in Milan as a kid/young man) used it, nobody here (Marche) would understand the term.


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## King Crimson

theartichoke said:


> _Ernesto is his own worst enemy_? _Ernesto makes his own life difficult_?



I like it, and I also like the option suggested by Odysseus ("Ernesto è uno che se la mena sempre"), which to my Milanese ears sounds particularly spot-on and idiomatic. Unfortunately, I think he's right when he says that outside Milan (or Lombardia at best) only few people would understand it correctly.


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## You little ripper!

Just because the person says “si crea continuamente problemi” doesn’t necessarily mean that his assessment of the reason why Ernesto does what he does is correct. From the context I don’t think it’s a case of him being his own worst enemy * as much as the fact that he has ‘anxiety issues’ as suggested by Ron, or is ‘disturbed‘ by Paul. I personally think he suffers from the personality trait called ‘perfectionism’. This person has unrealistically high expectations and avoids putting himself in situations where he can’t meet them because of the stress it causes him. The fact that other people find his behaviour annoying is another matter. Having said that, I like italtrav’s ‘pain in the ass’ because that’s how the person saying this perceives him, but it doesn’t have the same register as ‘problematico’.

* A person who is his own worst enemy is someone who does things that causes bad things to happen to him. This person is avoiding doing things because he can’t achieve the standards he has set himself.


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## theartichoke

You little ripper! said:


> * A person who is his own worst enemy is someone who does things that causes bad things to happen to him. This person is avoiding doing things because he can’t achieve the standards he has set himself.



I guess I have a broader definition of what makes someone his own worst enemy.  A guy who gets himself into bad situations (there are plenty of unpleasant consequences to not writing history exams and not attending relatives' weddings) for reasons that won't be accepted as valid by anyone but himself certainly fits the bill, to my mind!


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## You little ripper!

I think _is his own worst enemy _might work as a translation for ‘si crea continuamente problemi’, but doesn’t necessarily for ‘problematico’. Even if it did mean that he constantly created problems for himself, another word or phrase is needed to avoid repetition.


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## curiosone

Odysseus54 said:


> "he's got issues".



I'd prefer 'he has issues' (to 'he's got issues').

I think 'he's his own worst enemy' is perhaps the most elegant way of saying 'si crea continuamente problemi', but (at the risk o sounding colloquial) I'd likely say (informally).  "He's apt to make a mountain out of a molehill."  (which is a bit  nicer than saying 'he's a pain in the arse.').


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