Posted by boB on April 15, 2000, at 20:43:24
In reply to To Karen and Janet, posted by Renee N on April 15, 2000, at 19:38:29
This hoarding/spartan discussion is interesting. I have lots of books - at least half-a-ton, which I recently carried up a long set stairs, and might move again in three weeks if I get a job somewhere else. I have also abandonded or lost dear possession along the way, and I am considering dumping most of my unworn clothing if I move very soon.
But there seems something circular in the tendency to diagnose a supposedly organic brain disorder based on how many possessions one drags around. If that is the case, our society is all very much obssessed, because we are very much addicted to purchasing consumer goods. Bags of thrift store clothes are no more evidence or hoarding than are three cars, a jet ski, seven television sets and a summer home.
The relation of hoarding to mental disease started, I think, by examining the lifestyle of severely affected individuals. The circularity begins when we then say hoarding is evidence of a "disease" because some people with the disease have been known to hoard.
poster:boB
thread:20422
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000411/msgs/30169.html