Stuff

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

I don't know about you, but I am *slightly* obsessed with the show "Hoarders" on A&E and "Hoarding: Buried Live" on TLC.  It boggles my mind that some people can live among what most people would call trash.  The more severe hoarders also live among waste and dead animals. How can they not see how detrimental to their well being their living situation is?

 "Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things" gets inside the minds of those with this disorder.  Some psychologists label hoarding under Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, due to the fact that many believe hoarding to be a compulsion.  Other psychologists would label hoarding under it's own label.

The study of hoarding is fairly recent, although it's been mentioned in literature since at least the 1400's.  The onslaught of these hoarding shows, however, is bringing the study into the light.  This book definitely helps with the understanding of how people become hoarders in the first place.