Book review: when stuff is too crippling

[bunnyjadwiga]

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, by Randy O. Frost & Gail Steketee.

Fascinating read. Though this book's subtitle promises a sort of cultural or self-analysis, it's really more of a social science profile of a psychological problem. Of course, it begins with the story of the famously hoarding Collyer brothers. However, the author(s), doing clinical psychological work and research on hoarding, go on to present profiles and treatment approaches that are much more up to date. These profiles are the serious side of TV shows like Hoarders. Interviewing people who self-identified as hoarders or victims of crippling clutter, the authors build a portrait of the perfectionist, indecisive, anxious and overwhelmed-- and sometimes OCD-- people they worked with, and the techniques of talking them through their sorting that sometimes worked, sometimes didn't. For those who struggle with their own and other people's clutter, this is an eye-opening, sometimes reassuring, and sometimes challenging book. I couldn't put it down.

Three useful concepts: that hoarders tend toward the perfectionist/indecisive as well as OCD; that hoarders need to practice discarding things and gauging their level of discomfort over time; and the 'non-shopping' trip.

Comments

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

My grandmother didn't hoard, but that may have been partly because my grandfather, when he was alive, used to cycle her stuff slowly out of the house. Have her pick out 6 mugs to pack up and put in a box on the front porch, then move the last box to the barn, move the last box in the barn to the church rummage sale. And so on.