Abusive Hoarding And The Meaning Of Things Analysis

Many people at one point or another have flipped through the channels on the television and stumble across one of those television shows about hoarding pausing long enough to be appalled and wonder how they could let things get that bad. Hoarding is a mental disorder affecting millions of individuals, both young and old no matter their social status. Individuals with this disorder show a lack of awareness to the seriousness or severity of their behavior, resisting help that is offered them, and many times treatment is unsuccessful because they fail to follow through with their treatment.
In his book Stuff Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things author Randy O. Frost tells the story of the two eccentric Collyer brothers, Langley and Homer.

Two brothers lived in a three-story home in Harlem, New York. One morning in 1947 an anonymous caller reported that there was a dead body in the Collyer residence. Authorities went to investigate and when they unable to gain access through the front door, they forced entrance in through the basement. Only to find the room full of boxed and newspaper too heavy to move through. After calling out the fire department to help them gain access from through the second or third floor window they found many were also barricaded and blocked with junk. Finally, after about two hours they did gain access to the home through a second story window only to find piles of junk stacked to the ceiling with narrow tunnels. Some of the tunnels were dead ends, some were booby-trapped with boxes and would drop heavy items or cans on whoever disturb them. The police officer had to push himself over an eight foot wall of junk into a room and in a small clearing in the room he found the body of Homer Collyer. The autopsy for Homer, who was blind and nearly paralyzed from arthritis, showed that he had died of a heart attack about 10 hours before being found. Since Langley did not show himself during all the commotion they thought he might be hiding in the house somewhere. After three days and Langley had not shown himself the police thinking he was hiding in the home began an intensive search of the home. The police cleaned out and searched the home for three weeks, removing over 100 tons of debris, before finding Langley’s body about ten feet from where his brother had died. It appeared that while Langley was crawling through the tunnels of stuff to bring his brother food he had accidentally triggered one of his own booby traps. He suffocated under the weight of the bales of newspaper that had fallen down on him. Langley appeared to have died first and since Homer died of starvation since he was unable to move or see. In the end 170 tons of the brothers valuable processions were removed from the home, including everything from fourteen grand pianos, including one once received as a gift from Queen Victoria, a Model T Ford, x-ray machine, old bicycles, newspaper, junk mail and piles or trash and tin cans. The salvaged possession of the brothers was auctioned off and only netted less than two thousand dollars. (Frost)This story of Homer and Langley Collyer demonstrates the extent some people will go in order to hold on to possessions that they believe are important or valuable. This type of outlandish behavior is called compulsive hoarding.
“Hoarding refers to the excessive acquisition of relatively worthless items, which eventually results in the compromise of living space and/or the daily activities of affected individuals.”(Sansone) Frost & Hartl define compulsive hoarding as consisting of three criteria’s.

First, the acquisition of any failure to discard large amounts of possessions that appear to be useless or of limited value. Second, clutter that precludes using living spaces as initially intended such as using the kitchen to cook or the bathroom to bath. Finally, third significant emotional distress or impairment in function caused by hoarding behavior and clutter. (Cited by Fleury) Studies of hoarding show the rate of occurrence somewhere between 2 to 5 percent of the American population. That means as many as six million to fifteen million Americans suffer from hoarding that causes them distress or interferes with their ability to live. (Frost9) Neighbors or even family members could display symptoms of hoarding, however many times these signs go unnoticed because they are not thought of as hoarding most of the times they are laughed off or referred to as the “pack rat”. Robert Frost stated in his book Stuff, “The passion of a collector, the procrastination of someone who has not taken the time to put things away, the sentimentality of one who saves reminders of important personal events---all these are part of the hoarding story.”

(Frost14)
Hoarders will collect just about everything such as old newspaper, expired food, and even things they find in the dumpster.

“Many people with hoarding problems have a predominant theme to their hoarding, such as fear of waste, the allure of opportunity, or the comfort and safety provided by the objects.” (Frost15) They make no attempt to organize, categorize or even display the items they hoard. Typically, new items carried into the home are just piled on countertop, tables, in corners of the room or lining the hallway. Sometimes the piles get so big that their valued items get stacked to the ceiling. More times than not hoarders do not even know what is hiding in the massive piles of stuff, nor do they use the useless items that are accumulated. The levels of unmanageable stuff can get so large that clothing, boxes, and other articles cover the beds, or end up getting stacked in the showers. The clutter and mess make the home incapable of being used as intended. Sometimes family members are left wondering what compels these compulsive collectors to create such unlivable conditions in their homes for themselves and others. Most people form an attachment to the things they own or collect same as someone who hoard, however the hoard takes it to an extreme level of emotional attachment. A person who suffers from a hoarding disorder will experience severe anxiety over the thought of throwing out any of the accumulated items they have. They may even become violent and verbally

attack anyone who suggests that they clean up and dispose of some of their items. Some will even have panic attacks just at the thought of trying to discard a stack of junk mail. This is due to the fact that many people who have a hoarding disorder form extreme emotional attachments to the inanimate objects. They personify these items by attaching human characteristics to them.