Hoarders Versus Collectors

Although one-third of the American population, roughly 107 million, collect one thing or another, far fewer are hoarders, between 6 and 15 million. Sadly, this latter group can become miserable, as well as their families. In fact, most hoarders carry a psychiatric diagnosis. In a large U.S. study, major depressive disorder was found in over 50% of hoarders, while generalized anxiety disorder and/or social phobia were found in roughly 25%. Fewer than 20% had obsessive-compulsive disorder.

It is important to differentiate hoarding from collecting because the former can become an unpleasant and devastating situation for families. Ashley Keller and her research team at King’s College, London, studied this subject extensively. They found that the biggest distinction between a hoarder and a collector is levels of organization. Collectors engage in “ritualistic behavior around organizing their items,” Keller explains, “whereas with our hoarders we see a much more indiscriminate acquisition process, and this emphasis on organization just isn’t there.”

One of the most intriguing findings from the King’s College research, however, is that collectors tend to have larger property sizes than hoarders. Keller says that there are two conflicting interpretations for this: “Either hoarders tend to have smaller properties because they are functioning less well—unlike collectors, they are suffering from a prolonged psychiatric condition, so their career suffers, or they stop working at all — or, because one of the criteria for being a hoarder is that your living space is impeded, it takes longer for someone with a big home to reach that stage.”

Even if they don’t qualify as hoarders, collectors may have their own peculiarities. Louise C. Herreshoff (1876–1967) and her husband, Euchlin D. Reeves (1903–1967), who ultimately gave their collection to Washington and Lee University, are one example. They were unusual as a couple: Louise was 66 and Euchlin 38 when they married in 1941; hardly mainstream, even today. It seems the glue that bound the couple together was likely not romantic (he called her “Doll”; she called him “Boy”) but instead a passion for collecting. Their shared craving for porcelain and art resulted in their buying a second house next to the one in which they lived, specifically for their gathered objects. Eventually, there was no living space in either house; both were filled to capacity with stacks of porcelain, furniture, and paintings. The Euchlins, however, in spite of living in cramped quarters due to their collecting, are not categorized as hoarders. They chose their high-end treasures in an organized way while living a full life through collecting together. This is far different than the pain and suffering typically endured by hoarders and their families.

Other hard-core collectors may have different peculiarities. Collected objects, of course, do not talk back. Thereby, for some collectors, acquiring and appreciating them may be easier than developing close relationships. Some would call this fear of intimacy, a social phobia, in this case with objects substituting for humans. Werner Muensterberger, the author of the 1994 book Collecting: An Unruly Passion, proposed that unresolved childhood anxieties may be at the root of the collecting impulse. Muensterberger was a psychoanalyst, and this kind of logic was consistent with his field when he wrote his book. Today, I think few experts would say that collecting is pathological. For example, Louise and Euchlin Reeves, though extreme collectors with peculiarities, could be on one far end of a normal psychological bell curve. In other words, collecting is not necessarily about compensating for earlier disappointment by providing deceptive comfort, but rather about enriching life in a real way that has enduring benefits.