Downloaded by [New York University] at 12:57 13 August 2016 the HOARDING IMPULSE

Downloaded by [New York University] at 12:57 13 August 2016 THE HOARDING IMPULSE There has been an increased awareness of hoarding in recent years, but clinical treatments aimed at helping people with this condition often have low success rates. In The Hoarding Impulse Renee M. Winters explores how depth psychology can enrich current conceptual models and treatment standards for compulsive hoarding. The book presents case studies of prominent sufferers including Edie and Edith Beale, the Collyer Brothers, and Andy Warhol and explores common themes of loss, shame and object clusters. Winters sets out to provide a clear understanding of a hoarder’s lived experiences and their core schemas of value, worth and personal identity, revealing a direct connection to excessive acquisition of objects. She illuminates the process of how objects can come to possess a hoarder and become not only their main source of happiness but also part of their identity and in doing so puts forward a new treatment plan based on providing a deeper understanding of and potent treatment approach to what is a core issue for hoarding individuals: the wounding of the soul. This new perspective to treating individuals who hoard helps them in the long term understand their processes, value system, and struggles with negative interpersonal relationships. Downloaded by [New York University] at 12:57 13 August 2016 Providing a fascinating insight into the psyche of people who struggle with hoarding, this book will be essential reading for depth psychologists, Jungian psychotherapists, psychiatrists, social workers, students of analytical psychology and anyone interested in understanding the dynamics of this complex condition. Renee M. Winters is a psychotherapist in private practice in California, USA., where she focuses on helping clients discover symbolic meaning and unconscious processing in their lives. Winters is a graduate of Pacifica Graduate Institute in Carpinteria, California where she earned her Doctorate in Philosophy in Depth Psychology with an emphasis in Depth Psychotherapy. This page intentionally left blank Downloaded by [New York University] at 12:57 13 August 2016 THE HOARDING IMPULSE Suffocation of the Soul Renee M. Winters Downloaded by [New York University] at 12:57 13 August 2016 First published 2015 by Routledge 27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 2FA and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2015 Renee Winters The right of Renee Winters to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Winters, Renee M., author. The hoarding impulse: suffocation of the soul/Renee M. Winters. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. I. Title. [DNLM: 1. Obsessive Hoarding – psychology. 2. Obsessive Hoarding – therapy. WM 176] RC569.5.H63 616.85Ј84 – dc23 2014048792 ISBN: 978-1-138-83900-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-83901-4 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-73065-3 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo and Stone Sans by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK Downloaded by [New York University] at 12:57 13 August 2016 To Joanne C. A woman whose beautiful soul helped illuminate this journey for me through the sharing of her pain and eventual triumphs. Your strength is inspiring. Downloaded by [New York University] at 12:57 13 August 2016 This page intentionally left blank Downloaded by [New York University] at 12:57 13 August 2016 CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix Introduction xi 1 Hoarding as an epidemic 1 2 Identifications and projections placed on objects 9 3 Media influence and consumerism versus human survival 25 4 Seeing the person in the hoarder 39 5 Turning a diagnosis into soul work 45 6 Attending to the voices of hoarders 51 7 Personal stories of hoarders 57 Downloaded by [New York University] at 12:57 13 August 2016 Edith and Edie Beale: Grey Gardens 57 Homer and Langley Collyer: Harlem, New York 67 Andy Warhol: famous artist 80 Ida Mayfield Wood: New York socialite 91 Personal thoughts 100 8 Themes identified with hoarders 105 Loss 105 Shame 107 viii Contents Object clusters 108 Shadow inhabiting setting 109 9 Burying emotions with objects 111 10 Soul work toward recovery 117 References 123 Index 129 Downloaded by [New York University] at 12:57 13 August 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Quotes from Grey Gardens 2009, Home Box Office, Inc., all rights reserved, used with permission. Quotes from American Pickers courtesy of History Channel. Quotes from Ghosty Men © 2003, Franz Lidz, used with permission of Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc. Downloaded by [New York University] at 12:57 13 August 2016 This page intentionally left blank Downloaded by [New York University] at 12:57 13 August 2016 INTRODUCTION Boxes to the ceiling, picture frames depicting past smiles, a hope chest containing old baby clothes, two old dressers full of children’s artwork, and through the clutter in the corner, a small area long ago used for the practice of meditation. This woman’s psyche speaks through her recounting of loss, abandonment, isolation, children she didn’t have, a marriage that never happened, and a current life in which she felt stuck. She sat in despair, sad and tearful. Anxiety and embarrassment were present in the therapy room. She struggled to make sense of a life of which she was not proud. As her therapist I have worked with this patient for numerous years, and through our encounter together arose an increased awareness of how her physical clutter seemed to tell a story about her psychological clutter or even provide her comfort as the psychological Other as well. As I began to formulate the premise of this book, I saw similarities to the psychological clutter that I have held onto over the last decade and how this contributed to my relationships with objects I possessed. With my clutter, I am safe. The clutter serves as a buffer, a safe zone packed with matter that keeps me from living outwardly. But could my need for safety interfere with psychological growth and ultimately become a denial of my wholeness? A Downloaded by [New York University] at 12:57 13 August 2016 journey had begun to find a deeper understanding to the questions that cluttered my conscious thoughts. I began researching this topic, meeting with individuals who suffered from hoarding tendencies, and a larger sense of purpose to uncover the hidden meaning behind obsessive acquiring began to form. Additional questions started to accumulate in my mind, like objects packed tightly into a hoarder’s living room, multiplying over time spent with the topic. Could clutter have kept these hoarders closed off from an intimate and direct connection with life, family, friends, and companions? Was it done intentionally or from a place of unknowing; unaware of clutter’s purpose? Was this due to dread of emotional chaos, or loss of control associated with a deep connection with others and themselves? xii Introduction Our choices are often guided by the need for an integration of lifelong experience. It was no mistake that embarking on this book allowed a further unfolding of a personal and professional journey and a discovery of the true symbolic nature of my acquired clutter and that of other’s who I accompanied during this journey. Synchronistically, I have had opportunities to work with numerous patients over the last year that suffer from their own forms of physical clutter. Like me, they are willing to journey into the underworld of the hoarder, embrace their shadow material, and emerge more conscious of self and psyche. By no mistake, a therapeutic encounter was created with these patients that allowed them, as well as myself, movement towards uncovering self and psyche that was embedded and hidden in the clutter. Jung considered that a neurosis is not only a defense against the wounding of life, but an unconscious effort to heal such wounds. Thus one may respect the intent of the neurosis if not its consequences. Symptoms, then, are expres - sions of a desire for healing. (Hollis, 1996, p. 10) One of many definitions of compulsive hoarding is provided by the television program Hoarders: it is described for viewers watching the program as “a mental disorder marked by an obsessive need to acquire and keep things, even if the items are worthless, hazardous, or unsanitary.” But from whose point of view are one person’s objects seen as worthless? In the few years since this show was initially televised, there has been a shift away from objective judgment about the worth of possessions in definitions of this disorder. This signifies the importance of understanding value through the eyes of the hoarder. Depth psychology offers this essential exploration into the idiosyncratic meaning and value of objects to the person who possesses them. This book shows how depth psychology enriches current conceptual models and treatment standards for compulsive hoarding by providing a deeper understanding of and potent treatment approach to what could be a core issue for hoarding individuals, a crisis of the soul. “It was in 1966 when Bolman and Katz used the term for the first time to describe a psychopathological phenomenon in an anecdotic case report” (Maier, 2004, p.

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