Psychology Today June 2021 pp 13|Unconventional Wisdom|Insights|”Inside the Head of A Hoarder” by Hara Estroff Marano askhara@psychologytoday.com
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An interesting article with a good reference-a workbook entitled Buried in Treasure written by Randy Frost (Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Smith College). As explained by Marano, “There’s much more to hoarding than meets the eye.” The perspective of a hoarder is that beyond the typical utility, of materials we all use, hoarders embody a sense of identity, responsibility, a sense of safety, and an unusual vision of possibility.” According to Frost, these “objects contain a cache of memories that would be lost if discarded.” “The memories stored in possessions are visceral.” Hoarders “have a sense of responsibility for the care of possessions” in what Frost dubs “material scrupulosity…throwing items away would make the person feel like an ethical failure.”
Helping to resolve hoarding is difficult for bystanders and invested others that are impacted. A large measure of trust must be built for the topic and resolution of hoarding to become part of a constructive conversation. Seems a start is getting the hoarder to photograph their belongings with the hope of that taking “the edge off [of] making decisions about objects.” No doubt Frost’s workbook or similar could help make facilitate change.