DJDamage said:
Excellent advice.... if it was meant for a man but not for a young woman.
You can have all the talk you want with her about him and her behaviour but from my experience it will go to one ear and come out of the other. The problem is that she is still attracted to him and that is why she keeps bringing him up. Your best solution is not be so serious about this chick and just date her while spinning more plates and dating other chicks who don't have serious baggage and mention or keep in touch with their ex. A wise man once said " A relationship with an ex is never over if the ex is still in the picture".
You shouldn't assume these things in a situation like this. I've personally been exactly where this girl is myself. I was SO OVER my ex husband and had no interest or desire for him at all...he repulsed me. I was 100% devoted and committed to a new relationship and wanted to be with the new guy. My ex was not ready to let go, and he tried everything under the sun to get me to take him back and sabotage my new relationship and control me or make me miserable. Until you learn how to deal with someone behaving like this towards you it does impact your life and new relationship...even if you genuinely don't want it to. Pete, the guy I was involved with at the time, said basically the same things to me that I advised the OP to tell his girlfriend. Deep down I knew what my ex was doing, but I needed for someone else to point it out to me to really grasp it entirely. He was great in the way he dealt with the situation...and at times it frustrated him to no end. It's a good thing he was in jail at that time because had he not been he probably would have ended up there with some of the crap my ex was pulling. Pete and I talked it over for quite awhile and the two of us did some brainstorming to come up with ways to cope with the situation. I had 3 kids with my ex husband, so I couldn't cut all contact, so my situation was probably more difficult than the OP's (my ex would have followed me around anyhow because of the BPD).
They can deal with this problem as long as he can help his girlfriend acknowledge what is going on. From there, they need to brainstorm and come up with a plan. Since he's there with her, it will be much easier for him to help her overcome this problem.
In situations with controlling and miserable exes...the ones who keep going back do so because they usually haven't met or gotten involved with anyone else. If the woman has already moved on with someone else she is far less likely to want to go back to someone who treated her like crap...especially if she doesn't have kids with the ex.
Besides...what harm will it do for him to attempt having the discussion with her? If she won't deal with it, then the relationship won't work. If she will deal with it he might end up with a wonderful relationship that will make him very happy. But he won't know if he doesn't give it a shot.