Newly modified....Aug. 17th, 2010.
I regret to say that I do not have a lot of clinical cases to work with here...just situations and people I have met in my own personal experience...including myself who has been called at least a 'partial hoarder' myself...
I am going to approach this topic from a theoretical perspective and try to bring better clarity to the whole subject matter by helping to make 'better classification distinctions'...
'Hoarding' has been called a type of 'OCD' (Obessive-Compulsive Disorder) but this is bound to create as many problems as it solves because there is probably not a person alive who does not have some form of OCD to a greater or lesser extreme...The same goes with 'Bi-Polarity Personality' which also can be applied to each and everyone of us to a greater and/or lesser extreme...and probably about a hundred different possible specific 'bi-polarities' that we can talk about because both the mind and the body are built around the principle of 'multiple bi-polarity homeostatic function'.
For example, on the biochemical level, 'high' and 'low' levels of 'blood-sugar' in the blood can be viewed as a type of 'bi-polar dysfunction' where the body's need for a 'quantifiable blood-sugar level' to 'balance' the body's ability to perform its other functions properly is not being met. The over-riding or under-riding principle of psychological, physical, and/or bio-chemical 'homeostasis' is not being met.
On the psychological level, depending on the type of classification system(s) we want to use, we can talk about 'topdog-underdog' bi-polarities, 'anal-oral' bi-polarities, 'nurturing-critical' bi-polarities, 'phobic-counter-phobic (obsessive-compulsive)' bi-polarities, 'Parent-Child' bi-polarities, 'Superego-Underego' bi-polarities, 'Apollonian-Dionysian' bi-polarities, 'Superego-Id' bi-polarities, 'Personna-Shadow' bi-polarities, 'Conscious-Subconscious' bi-polarities....and many possible more...
Now, regarding the subject of 'hoarding', the first distinction that we need to make is between the 'anal-phobic personality' (APP) and the 'anal-explosive personality' (AEP)...
In this regard, we can make a distinction between 'collecting' and 'hoarding'...
The 'collector' is generally meticulously organized and organizes his or her 'collection' meticulously....(coins, CDs, books, gems, comic books, butterflies...)
In contrast, the 'hoarder' tends to live in an environment that is generally 'a walking disaster area' that is only going to keep getting worse...Most of us have probably seen the tv show 'Hoarders' so I am sure you know what I am talking about here....
The collector (anal phobic personality) has a 'counter-phobia' against 'dirt', 'germs', 'disorder'...wheras the 'hoarder' (anal-explosive personality) has a 'counter-phobia' against rules, organization, order, neatness, hygiene...The anal-phobic personality is basically 'allergic' to a mess whereas the anal-explosive personality ('Pigpen', 'Diogenes') lives in a mess, seemingly thrives in a mess....at least until the mess starts to basically 'strangle' his or her work or home environment...
This is essentially the distinction that 'serial profilers' make between an 'organized' (Apollonian) personality and a 'disorganized' (anti-Apollonian, more Dionysian) personality.
An anal-phobic person is generally more of an 'Establishment, Organization, Corporate' person unless their are underlying 'sadistic', 'violent', and/or other forms of 'anti-social' impulses whereas the anal-explosive person generally is much more likely going to have trouble finding and keeping a job because there are issues of 'disorganization', 'chaos', 'rebellion', 'anarchy', 'problems with authority and following organizational rules' that are basically likely going to sabotage the latter type of person's ability to function in an organizational environment...and thus, keep a job in this type of environment...
I've met a lot of people of this latter personality type driving taxis at night because they need to 'stay as far away as they can from the day-time politics of the organization they are working for'... Similarily, as a landlord, most of the young adults or even older adults who I have met and rented our 'basement apartment' to, have turned out to be of this 'personality type' -- the basement apartment soon becoming a 'walking disaster area'....
Personally speaking, I tend to be 'bi-polar' in this area of 'anal-phobic' vs. 'anal-explosive' distinction. In my younger years, my CD collection used to be well-organized, now it is a 'disorganized mess' as it has become less of a focal-point of my life. I aim to be clear in the organization of my essays, my work as a dispatcher used to combine 'anal-phobic' and 'anal-explosive' features...
My books are usually either at least decently organized on bookshelves if or when I have the time to properly organize them, my Freudian collection for the most part sits right behind me here in my den, including Freud's 24 volume Standard Edition Collection which sits behind me in a glass bookshelf that was recently bought. However, if you catch me on a more disorganized day, you may catch my books scattered all around the townhouse, down in the living room where I used to have my computer, out in the garage in boxes when I briefly moved out of here, sometimes on the table, sometimes on the floor...until I finally get around to 'organizational cleanup' ...An 'organized mind generally means an organized self-environment and visa versa'...and similarly, a 'disorganized mind generally means a disorganized self-environment and visa versa'...
In this regard, we can also make some furhter distinctions between different types of 'anal-phobic' and 'anal-explosive' personalities...
For example, we can distinguish between the 'entropic anal-explosive' person who simply lacks the energy, motivation, and/or willpower to organize his or her environment, and the more 'deliberately rebellious, or even anarchist personality' who is the type of person who thrives on 'chaos', 'disorganization', 'sabotage', 'putting the wrench into the organizational assembly line', hates authority figures, hates rules and regulations, hates 'being told what to do'...
Here is another type of 'hoarding'. This one I just briefly caught while I was watching the tv show 'Hoarders'....A female hoarder recalls when she was younger, a teenager I believe who was in the process of leaving the aunt who she lived with at the time, that the aunt very cruelly 'burned all the teenager's clothes in a bonfire'....Since then, the woman simply 'held onto all of her property, refusing to part with anything'...We might call this type of hoarding 'post-traumatic, counter-phobic hoarding'...I surmise there is a strong underlying compulsion to hold onto one's property for dear life' -- i.e., propped up by a self-statement saying in essence, 'I'm not going to let someone else take away or destroy any of my property again....'...a combination of 'repetition' and 'mastery' compulsion at work here...
Finally, I would like to make a distinction between the 'collector who loses control of whatever he or she is collecting which then turns into a chaotic hoard of unorganized property'....that's me to a certain extent as I have a tendency of 'biting off more than I can chew when I am in a book store and see a book or more that I want and/or particularly used books that are being sold cheap, ...and then when I take them home I end up with not enough space in my townhouse to put the bookshelves needed to properly organize all my incoming books...and then they can start to look like a 'chaotic hoard' scattered all around the townhouse....although certainly not even close to some of these scenes that we see on tv regarding 'hoarding nightmares' where people can't even walk properly, cook, or do anything productive in their own home.
Contrast the type of hoarding above with something that is a little more -- or a lot more -- anally explosive in terms of potential underlying rage...
In the case I am thinking about, I know a person who combines 'alcoholism' with 'hoarding'...He is a 'basement alcoholic'...So was his father when he was a child growing up, in fact, he became obligated to be his dad's 'bartender' and whenever he heard the 'rattling of ice cubes' this was his cue to bring his father another drink... There is much more to this story than I am even partly aware of -- mental abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse that he may or may not have been directly involved in. He was in effect his dad's 'private whipping post' -- a very intelligent man who made oodles of corporate money during the day and then brought this private nightmare home to his young family at night...The son left home to make his own way in life when he was 16...and did amazingly well...saving -- indeed, 'hoarding' the money he made -- and becoming better and better in the banking business, the stock market, and corporate mangement reaching a point where he was making a $150,000 salary with a major corporation....But with a huge psychological cost...on the clock, 24/7...very little down time or re-energizing time....and the time he did get he started to 'replay' his dad's nightmare as the 'basement alcoholic'....he lost his job, his wife...became reclusive....albeit financially self-sufficient and well off without the need for a job at age 50...with this eery 'repetition compulsion' that he took over from his dead father...on the computer all night...drinking all day and all night, primarily in the basement where I have never been down there but am afraid of what it might look like....I would gusess probably hundreds of liquor bottles covering the entire basement down there...and upstairs which I have seen is very similar to what you would see on 'Hoarders'...everything in 'bags' and scattered all over the townhouse floor...at least enough room to walk in there, at least the last time I was there, and sit down on his couch...but scary still the same...he doesn't let most people in except family and a close friend of the family -- that being me....Both his sisters are social workers, his brother a well respected classical musician and teacher...and no one so far has been able to 'break this mad repetition compulsion'...a very smart, kind, and caring man...entrapped and enslaved by his alcholism and his father's 'introjected' repetition compulsion...I hope to one day give you a 'happier ending' -- or at least 'evoluton' -- on this story...
In this latter case, the man's 'hoarding' characteristic almost seems to be more of an 'internal purging of psychological toxins' -- even as he is putting more and more alcoholic toxins down his throat before the empty bottles become littered all over the basement floor -- rather than a situation of 'collecting gone out of control'... I know another 'home alcoholics' who is still a 'neat freak' and get his empty bottles out to the garage for either recycling and/or returning to the liquor or beer store...
An 'organized' alcholic still has a lot of 'detoxification energy' in him and can never be called a 'hoarder'; wheras a 'disorganized' alcoholic is missing a combination of 'detoxification energy, motivation, and/or skills' and can often be called a 'hoarder'...
Again, hoarding is a 'disorganized' phenomenon as opposed to 'collecting' which is an 'organized' phenomenon...
My example of the 'basement alcoholic' is an example of a man with essentially 'no detoxification energy and/or motivation' even though he obviously has the awareness, the knowledge, and the skills to get rid of his empty bottles if he really wanted to...He just continues to 'not want to'...
It is like he follows a 'Diogenes' archetype figure -- Diogenes being the ultimate philosopher of chaos, disorder, and deconstruction...although unlike in the description of 'Diogenes Syndrome' cited below from Wikipedia, on the internet, Diogenes was certainly not 'senile', certainly not 'intellectually deficient' in any degree, indeed intellectually superior to many of his protagonists and antogonists...and certainly not mentally ill...rather, Diogenes was making a 'philosophical statement' by the lifestyle he chose to follow, and the assorted 'shocking stunts' that he is famous for having pulled were again designed to 'make a philosophical statement'....Thus, if we are going to use this label of 'Diogenes Syndrome' then it is important that we not always, if ever, associate it with 'dementia', 'alzheimer's, 'senility', 'degeneracy', or the like...
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Diogenes of Sinope
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
Diogenes of Sinope
(Διογένης ὁ Σινωπεύς)
Diogenes by John William Waterhouse, depicting his lamp, tub, and diet of onions
Full name Diogenes of Sinope
(Διογένης ὁ Σινωπεύς)
Born c. 412 BCE
Sinope
Died 323 BCE
Corinth
Era Ancient philosophy
Region Western Philosophy
School Greek philosophy, Cynicism
Main interests Asceticism, Cynicism
Notable ideas Cynic philosophy
Influenced by[show]Antisthenes, dogs
Influenced[show]Crates of Thebes, other Cynics, the Stoics
Diogenes of Sinope (Greek: Διογένης ὁ Σινωπεύς Diogenes ho Sinopeus), was a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynic philosophy. Also known as Diogenes the Cynic, he was born in Sinope (modern-day Sinop, Turkey) in 412 or 404 BCE and died at Corinth in 323 BCE.[1]
Diogenes was one of the few men to ever publicly mock Alexander the Great and live. He intellectually humiliated Plato and was the only pupil ever accepted by Antisthenes, whom he saw as the true heir of Socrates. Diogenes taught his philosophy of Cynicism to Crates who taught it to Zeno of Citium who fashioned it into the school of Stoicism, one of the most enduring branches of Greek philosophy.
Diogenes of Sinope was always controversial. Exiled from his native city for defacing the currency, he moved to Athens and declared himself a cosmopolitan (in defiance of the prevailing city-state system). He became a disciple of Antisthenes, and made a virtue of extreme poverty, famously begging for a living and sleeping in a tub in the marketplace. He became notorious for his provocative behaviour and philosophical stunts such as carrying a lamp in the daytime, claiming to be looking for an honest man. He regularly argued with Plato, disputing his interpretation of Socrates and sabotaging his lectures. After being captured by pirates and sold into slavery, Diogenes eventually settled in Corinth, where he was befriended by Alexander.
Diogenes was a staunch admirer of Hercules. He believed that virtue was better revealed in action than in theory. His life was a relentless campaign to debunk the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt society. None of his many writings have survived, but details of his life come in the form of anecdotes (chreia), especially from Diogenes Laërtius, in his book Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.
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Diogenes syndrome
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
Diogenes syndrome, also known as senile squalor syndrome, is a disorder characterized by extreme self-neglect, domestic squalor, social withdrawal, apathy, compulsive hoarding of rubbish, and lack of shame.[1][2]
The condition was first recognized in 1966[3] and designated diogenes syndrome by Clark et al.[4] The name derives from Diogenes of Sinope, an ancient Greek philosopher, a Cynic and an ultimate minimalist, who allegedly lived in a barrel. Not only did he not hoard, but he actually sought human company by venturing daily to the Agora. Therefore, this eponym is considered to be a misnomer,[5] Other possible terms are senile breakdown, Plyushkin's Syndrome (after a character from Gogol's novel Dead Souls[6]), social breakdown and senile squalor syndrome.[7] Frontal lobe impairment may play a part in the causation (Orrell et al., 1989).[8]
See also
Compulsive hoarding
Edmund Trebus
Collyer brothers
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Diogenes syndrome: A rare condition where a person (usually an elderly person) fails to look after there personal cleanliness and hygiene. They tend to be untidy and hoard rubbish. More detailed information about the symptoms, causes, and treatments of Diogenes syndrome is available below.
Symptoms of Diogenes syndrome
•Self-neglect
•Lack of self-consciousness about personal habits
•Untidiness
•Hoarding of rubbish
•Aloofness
•more symptoms...»
See full list of 10 symptoms of Diogenes syndrome
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DIOGENES AND ALEXANDER THE GREAT
There lived a wise man in ancient Greece whose name was Diogenes. Men came from all parts of the land to see him and talk to him.
Diogenes was a strange man. He said that no man needed much, and so he did not live in a house but slept in a barrel, which he rolled about from place to place. He spent his days sitting in the sun and saying wise things to those who were around him.
When Alexander the Great came to that town he went to see the wise man. He found Diogenes outside the town lying on the ground by his barrel. He was enjoying the sun.
When he saw the king he sat up and looked at Alexander. Alexander greeted him and said:
"Diogenes, I have heard a great deal about you. Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Yes," said Diogenes, "you can step aside a little so as not to keep the sunshine from me."
The king was very much surprised. But this answer did not make him angry. He turned to his officers with the following words:
"Say what you like, but if I were not Alexander, I should like to be Diogenes."
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Hegel's Hotel is bult on a combination of anal-phobic and anal-explosive, organized and disorganized, deconstructive and reconstructive, Apollonian and Dionysian characteristics and forces...all aiming to come together in a 'balanced synthesis'...an integrative, multi-dialectic whole...
Enough writing for today...
-- dgb, Aug 15th-17th, 2010.
-- David Gordon Bain
-- Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations...
-- Are Still in Process...
