What possesses someone to save every scrap of paper that’s ever come into his home? What compulsions drive a woman like Irene, whose hoarding cost her her marriage? Or Ralph, whose imagined uses for castoff items like leaky old buckets almost lost him his house? Or Jerry and Alvin, wealthy twin bachelors who filled up matching luxury apartments with countless pieces of fine art, not even leaving themselves room to sleep?

Randy Frost and Gail Steketee were the first to study hoarding when they began their work a decade ago; they expected to find a few sufferers but ended up treating hundreds of patients and fielding thousands of calls from the families of others. Now they explore the compulsion through a series of compelling case studies in the vein of Oliver Sacks.With vivid portraits that show us the traits by which you can identify a hoarder—piles on sofas and beds that make the furniture useless, houses that can be navigated only by following small paths called goat trails, vast piles of paper that the hoarders “churn” but never discard, even collections of animals and garbage—Frost and Steketee explain the causes and outline the often ineffective treatments for the disorder.They also illuminate the pull that possessions exert on all of us. Whether we’re savers, collectors, or compulsive cleaners, none of us is free of the impulses that drive hoarders to the extremes in which they live.

For the six million sufferers, their relatives and friends, and all the rest of us with complicated relationships to our things, Stuff answers the question of what happens when our stuff starts to own us. 

Dr. Randy O. Frost is the Howard Edward and Elsa Siipola Israel Professor of Psychology at Smith College. He is an internationally known expert on obsessive-compulsive disorder and compulsive hoarding, as well as the pathology of perfectionism. He has published over 100 scientific articles and book chapters on these topics. His work has been funded by NIMH and the Obsessive-Compulsive Foundation. He has co-authored several books on hoarding including Compulsive Hoarding and Acquiring: Therapist Guide and an accompanying workbook as well as Buried in Treasures: Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving and Hoarding. His research has been featured on a variety of television and radio news shows including 20/20 Downtown, Good Morning America, Dateline, National Public Radio (general news as well as the award winning program The Infinite Mind), BBC News, and Canadian Broadcasting Company's The Nature of Things.

Gail Steketee, Ph.D., MSW received her undergraduate degree from Harvard and her MSW and PhD degrees from Bryn Mawr in 1973 and 1987. She joined the faculty at the Boston University School of Social Work in 1986 and is currently Professor and Dean at the School. She has conducted multiple research studies of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic and OC spectrum conditions, including body dysmorphic disorder and compulsive hoarding. She has received several grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to study OCD and hoarding. She currently leads a multidisciplinary team studying the psychopathology and treatment of compulsive hoarding, as well as web-based and group treatments and community task force initiatives to address this problem. She has published over 180 articles, chapters and books on anxiety, OCD and related disorders, including 8 books. Her most recent books include Cognitive Approaches to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Compulsive Hoarding and Acquiring: Therapist Guide and Client Manual, and Buried in Treasures: Help for Compulsive Hoarding. 

 

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