The Psychology of Hoarding: Who Hoards? What do they Hoard? Why do they Hoard?

Abstract

Hoarding is defined as the “acquisition of, and failure to discard,possessions which appear to be useless or oflimited value”.Since the 1990s, in the fields of clinicalpsychology and psychiatry, many studies on hoarding have been conducted with the perspective that hoarding and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are closely linked. On the other hand, however, there is also an insistence that hoarding is a normal act likely to becomeahabit for anyone, i. e. non-clinical individuals. This article therefore focuses on twotypes : the more serious compulsive hoarding by clinical individuals and hoarding by non-clinical individuals who makeit part of their everydaylife. The paper then summarizes various research tasks for understanding hoarding based on previous studies.More practically, this study covers the relevant factors of hoarding, such as other mental diseases and the home environment during the childhood period, characteristics of hoarders, reasons behind the hoarding habit, and various problems caused by hoarding.Finally, preventions and countermeasures regarding hoarding are discussed. Keywords