Historical Portrayal of Hoarding Disorder in European Literature and Its Relationship to the Economic and Personal Circumstances of the Authors

Abstract

In 2013, hoarding disorder was officially recognized as a separate Diagnostic and Statistical Manual psychiatric diagnosis after years of debate. Prior to 2013, hoarding disorder was generally considered a subset of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Though modern medicine has only recently deepened the analysis of hoarding disorder, hoarding was regularly featured as a character trait in numerous European literary works dating back over 700 years. Several prominent European writers incorporated hoarding behavior in the fictional characters they created. Each author's individual social and economic experiences may have been motivators for perpetuating hoarding-like behavior. It can be postulated that specific historical events and economic circumstances in the country at the time of each author's life likely impacted their interpretation of hoarding behaviors, and the authors carried these influences into their portrayal of their fictional characters. This analysis discusses the various portrayals of hoarding in key pieces of literature and seeks to explain the rationale for these authors' inclusion of hoarding traits in their characters.