A review by bluejayreads
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost

4.0

I picked this up mainly because the second half of the subtitle ("the Meaning of Things" bit) sounded interesting to me. I wasn't all that interested in hoarding itself. At least I wasn't before I read this book. Because this was actually fascinating. Hoarding is one of those things that people think is a moral failure of some kind, but this book really highlighted the mental health aspect of it and the different psychological aspects involved (although whether they're symptoms or causes or both is arguable). What I didn't expect was some insights into myself. I'm not a hoarder, but I do have a complicated relationship with stuff and the act of owning it. I expected to learn about hoarders. I did not expect lines like "Physical objects provide clear and tangible verification of mastery over the world" and "Violations of ownership lead to extreme feelings of vulnerability" to explain some things about my fraught relationship with stuff. So in addition to being quite interesting, I learned a lot about the psychology of hoarding, and also myself. 
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