Not seeing the forest for the trees implies a person is overwhelmed with focusing on every small detail that they fail to recognize or comprehend the broader picture or context. This concept often applies in a clinical setting. When people experience pain or injury, they tend to pathologize everything they experience, thinking that each symptom or experience are individual of one another. People tend to walk around "marking trees" so to speak, looking for patterns or associations, but really just creating chaos, confusion, and frustration for themselves.