people who don't have hoarding problems. The difference between people who hoard and those who don't is in the volume and variety of things they view as "useful." For example, one elderly hoarder saved the labels from cans and jars of food to use as stationery.
Furby's second theme was that possessions provide a sense of security, reminiscent of Winnicott's transitional objects. This theme was also emphasized by Alfred Adler, an analyst who broke with classical psychoanalysis in suggesting that acquiring possessions is one way people compensate for a sense of inferiority created at birth. That inanimate objects can provide comfort was demonstrated by Harry Harlow's classic experiments with infant monkeys, who showed an innate preference for a soft, cloth surrogate mother over a wire-mesh one, even though the wire-mesh surrogate provided them with food and the cloth one didn't. When frightened, the monkeys ran to the soft surrogate, demonstrating that the texture of objects can provide comfort and security. Such comfort in objects led Irene to build a fortress of stuff and many of our clients to describe their homes as "cocoons" or "bunkers." One recent theory about hoarding by Stephen Kellett suggests that it evolved from attempts to create and maintain secure living sites, similar to nesting behaviors in animals.
The third major theme identified by Furby was that possessions become part of an individual's sense of self, just as Sartre believed. This kind of attachment can be subtle yet powerful. Objects can increase one's sense of status or power and expand one's potential: my purchase of a piano provides me with the potential to become a pianist, thereby expanding my identity. Objects can also maintain identity by preserving personal history. Most people save mementos of their personal past. These mementos become repositories for the sensations, thoughts, and emotions present during earlier experiences, promoting sensations such as the rush of nostalgia that can accompany hearing a song or smelling a scent from the past.
Collecting
People collect and save objects as a hobby in virtually all cultures. The earliest documented evidence of collecting comes from excavations of the Persian tombs at Ur in what is now Iraq. A collection of eleven hundred seal impressions on lumps of clay found there date to the fifth century B.C.E. In contemporary society, of course, many people collect objects of various types, from antique cars to matchboxes. By one estimate, one-third of adults in the United States collect something, and two-thirds of all households have at least one collector in residence. Some people collect odd items, such as empty cigarette packs or coffee cans, and people join together as societies dedicated to certain kinds of collecting, from the American Philatelic Society (stamps) to the more unusual Victorian Button Collectors Club. In contrast to the very limited science about hoarding, research on collecting has a long history, mostly from the perspective of sociology, anthropology, and the economics of consumer behavior.
Exactly what makes something a collection or someone a collector is elusive. Virtually anything can be and has been collected, from stamps to swizzle sticks. But just how many swizzle sticks does it take to make a collection? Most scholars who study collecting seem to agree that a collection must be a set of objects, meaning more than one, and that the items must be related in some wayâthey must have some kind of cohesive theme. They also must be actively acquired, meaning there must be some kind of passion or fire to seek out and obtain them. Someone who simply receives gifts that otherwise fit the definition is not a collector.
The process of collecting can be quite elaborate. Some sociologists liken it to a courtship in which the collector spends considerable time planning the hunt for an object and anticipating the moment of acquisition. The objects in the collection, once acquired,
Furby's second theme was that possessions provide a sense of security, reminiscent of Winnicott's transitional objects. This theme was also emphasized by Alfred Adler, an analyst who broke with classical psychoanalysis in suggesting that acquiring possessions is one way people compensate for a sense of inferiority created at birth. That inanimate objects can provide comfort was demonstrated by Harry Harlow's classic experiments with infant monkeys, who showed an innate preference for a soft, cloth surrogate mother over a wire-mesh one, even though the wire-mesh surrogate provided them with food and the cloth one didn't. When frightened, the monkeys ran to the soft surrogate, demonstrating that the texture of objects can provide comfort and security. Such comfort in objects led Irene to build a fortress of stuff and many of our clients to describe their homes as "cocoons" or "bunkers." One recent theory about hoarding by Stephen Kellett suggests that it evolved from attempts to create and maintain secure living sites, similar to nesting behaviors in animals.
The third major theme identified by Furby was that possessions become part of an individual's sense of self, just as Sartre believed. This kind of attachment can be subtle yet powerful. Objects can increase one's sense of status or power and expand one's potential: my purchase of a piano provides me with the potential to become a pianist, thereby expanding my identity. Objects can also maintain identity by preserving personal history. Most people save mementos of their personal past. These mementos become repositories for the sensations, thoughts, and emotions present during earlier experiences, promoting sensations such as the rush of nostalgia that can accompany hearing a song or smelling a scent from the past.
Collecting
People collect and save objects as a hobby in virtually all cultures. The earliest documented evidence of collecting comes from excavations of the Persian tombs at Ur in what is now Iraq. A collection of eleven hundred seal impressions on lumps of clay found there date to the fifth century B.C.E. In contemporary society, of course, many people collect objects of various types, from antique cars to matchboxes. By one estimate, one-third of adults in the United States collect something, and two-thirds of all households have at least one collector in residence. Some people collect odd items, such as empty cigarette packs or coffee cans, and people join together as societies dedicated to certain kinds of collecting, from the American Philatelic Society (stamps) to the more unusual Victorian Button Collectors Club. In contrast to the very limited science about hoarding, research on collecting has a long history, mostly from the perspective of sociology, anthropology, and the economics of consumer behavior.
Exactly what makes something a collection or someone a collector is elusive. Virtually anything can be and has been collected, from stamps to swizzle sticks. But just how many swizzle sticks does it take to make a collection? Most scholars who study collecting seem to agree that a collection must be a set of objects, meaning more than one, and that the items must be related in some wayâthey must have some kind of cohesive theme. They also must be actively acquired, meaning there must be some kind of passion or fire to seek out and obtain them. Someone who simply receives gifts that otherwise fit the definition is not a collector.
The process of collecting can be quite elaborate. Some sociologists liken it to a courtship in which the collector spends considerable time planning the hunt for an object and anticipating the moment of acquisition. The objects in the collection, once acquired,
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