Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things

This is one of the most disturbing, yet fascinating books that I have ever read. Stuff is the first comprehensive book about compulsive hoarding, a disorder that affects more than six million people. Dr. Randy Frost and Dr. Gail Steketee were the first scientists to study hoarding and the case studies discussed in this book give us a sense of what the victims and their families endure. As the bookjacket reads "With vivid portraits that show us the particular traits of the hoarder - piles on sofas and beds that make the furniture useless, homes that have to be navigated by narrow "goat trails", stacks of paper that are "churned" but never discarded, even collections of animals and garbage - Frost and Steketee expose the causes and previously ineffective treatments of the disorder. They also illuminate the pull that possessions exert on all of us: whether we're savers, collectors, or compulsive cleaners, none of us are free of the impulses that drive hoarders to extremes." After reading this book, you'll never look at your possessions in the same way.