Hoarding: Identity Conceptualization through Objects and its Exploitation in the Media

Abstract

An anthropological analysis of hoarding allows a deeper look into the culture of consumption that the modern age so fosters. Distributed personhood and Colin Campbell’s theory of modern autonomous imaginative hedonism provide lenses through which I believe we should analyze this disability in order to effectively manage and treat it (Campbell 1987, 77). After I analyze hoarding through an anthropological lens, I argue that popularized hoarding literature and television shows distorts the reality of hoarding in order to stigmatize those who hoard and latently have them act as a warning to the viewers/readers about overconsumption and conforming to societal norms. [From introductory section]