Possessed
World March 13th, 2008Time for some learnin’! Yesterday I came across this absolutely FASCINATING documentary about people who compulsively hoard stuff, the condition also known as disposophobia (if the video loads slow or you want to conserve bandwidth, click on the “HD” button to turn HD off). It’s a thoughtful and well presented documentary, with the only talking done by the interviewees. I thought it was interesting how the film was ordered in terms of the neatness of the hoarders.
What was most fascinating were the insights given by the hoarders to why they hoard. I thought it was interesting how so much of it is about being in control in a material way (through the buying and hoarding) and yet they are being controlled by the very stuff they buy (I guess that’s what the title of the documentary is referring to). The last segment involving the man who was simultaneously digging through a mountain of worthless junk while talking about his dead mother was chilling to say the least, and quite saddening.
More Links
- Lots of pictures of another hoarder
- Psychology of Hoarding
Such visual insights into the very private lives of individuals whose activities deviate from the norm, makes me feel guilty for being so indulgent in my curiosity. Many hoarders seem to lead private lives, who value their privacy like anyone else, and it seems kinda intrusive and voyeuristic to be so fascinated with their different way of living. I hope there’s a difference between simply wanting to know more about something and actually intruding on people and demanding to know.
8 Responses to “Possessed”
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I’ve seen the pictures of the hoarder via the somethingawful forums before. I find myself being compulsively neat and “anti-hoard” sometimes, so it’s totally fascinating for me how someone could live like that.
That said, Karl’s a bit of a hoarder. I just hope he never gets to that state.
The first hoarder in the documentary has more than 6000 books. While he has a lot of other clutter in his house, and that what he’s doing IS probably quite intrusive on his life, I can’t help but be secretly envious of the idea of owning that many books! Though not at the cost of it being a difficult-to-control, constant impulse I suppose.
Wow, that’s a whole lot of books!
I can’t say as I find that as odd as the people who collect random crap though. To me, books are knowledge, knowledge is power and so forth. If I had the space, I would have wall to wall bookshelves packed with books. :3
That was really interesting. Leila and I also watched the documentarian’s other video, The Collector, about a positively lovable Frenchman who compulsively saves anything ‘useful’ he finds in the garbage. Definitely worth a watch for anyone who liked Possessed.
The first guy in Possessed kind of worried me because I’ve been guilty of acquiring books simply to have books (especially when I was younger) and also of making comprehensive lists of the books (again, when I was younger)…and he made a reference to Star Wars! It was like seeing the specter of some future me who I never turned into.
I can sort of empathise, while I’m not a big spender of money, books were a weakness of mine. I’d buy books that I’ve read or have heard good things about, with the thought that I’d read it some day (I rarely do).
Hmmm… I wonder if thousands of years ago those that hoarded and kept everything they could were the ones who survived. Like, clay pots just must not have been that numerous back then, so keeping every single one you had was useful. I wonder if this is something that evolution has removed from most people to a certain extent. And I wonder if we only consider it a disease now because the rest of us weren’t built like that? Of course, this is all BS so I wouldn’t take it seriously, but I wonder.
In that “Psychology of Hoarding” link, the article talks about exactly that; that hoarding most likely had evolutionary advantages. Apparently, lots of other animals do it (e.g. perhaps like squirrels?) However, it seems like it’s only humans that hoard to pathological excess.
Wow, that’s insane. I mean, I’ve heard of pack-rats before but that’s just ridiculous. I love collecting books, but I want to keep it down to just two bookcases - no more than that. Sometimes my mum watches those cleaning shows on TV where the people’s houses are RIDICULOUS - you can’t even walk in them because one of the family members has so much stuff. It’s crazy.