Kepler's 2020 Project in the News:
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At some point, most possessions become stuff. The cool poster, newest craft project, the country cookbook collection, or model airplanes, even Chia pets - all become boring, forgotten or outgrown in the continual push forward that is life. Then most of that stuff transitions into yard sale gems, donations, passed along or simply thrown out. But for some people stuff takes on a lure impossible to resist. So overwhelming and pervasive is the need to own, gather, collect and “save” things, that obsessive collecting tips into hoarding behavior. Parting with their stuff is traumatizing, sometimes to the point of death.Frost and Steketee are the first psychologists to study this behavior formally. Thinking their study would be fairly small, they were surprised but the large number of people that were in need of treatment as well as family members that needed help dealing with this obsessive behavior. Age, income, demographics have little influence on hoarding. Their studies and treatment found that many hoarders want and need tangible stuff but that is often secondary to the relationships those object have had, might have or could have. These object relationships become entangling webs of possibility so powerful that the hoarder and their families become overwhelmed and at times entombed by stuff. Stuff is a fascinating, sometimes scary read into fundamental human connections we create and nurture through possessions. You may never look at stuff the same way again. Marilyn S. |
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