congratulate myself that

[joham]

I was very surprised when I read the sentence with the structure of 'congratulate myself that' in the following search result. Could you tell me whether you natives say things this way at all? Thank you very much.

http://www.americancorpus.org/x4.asp?t=1035208&ID=363886948

Date​

2006​

Publication information​

New York :; Touchstone,​

Title​

To kingdom come : [a novel] /​

Author​

Thomas, Will, 1958- ​

Source​

To kingdom come : [a novel]​

​

Expanded context:​

against the cobalt night. Vaguely, I remembered thoughts I'd had once of jumping from a bridge and shuffling off this mortal coil, but that had been a few months ago. Had I finally done it? I wondered. To be truthful, I wasn't sure I had the nerve. If this was an attempt, I could congratulate myself that it was successful, which was a novelty, since I'd rarely been successful at anything in my twenty-two years. If that actually was a bridge above me, then presumably I would strike water shortly, which was far preferable to pavement, being less messy. I had another ​

 

[BobK]

:up: It's quite common - though perhaps it's such an abstract idea that it is more commonly used in fairly formal contexts. A university Dean is more likely to say 'I think we can congratulate ourself that we got such good marks' than a car salesman, who would probably make the congratulations more direct - 'You can congratulate yourself on getting a good deal'; But the car salesman might equally well say 'You can congratulate yourself that you've got a good deal'.

b