I was watching breakfast tv earlier, and there was an item on hoarding being recognised as a psychological disorder. I must admit it caught my interest for several reading: my initial reaction was to indignantly wonder how something so seemingly trivial could be seen in the same general sphere as more significant medical problems and disabilities. But thinking about it a bit more deeply, post my second coffee, it occurred to me that the issue is rather more complex.

The question is, what is a ‘condition’, be it medical or psychological? Probably the simplest, broadest answer I can think of is that it is a list of symptoms which significantly impact someone’s quality of life or ability to live. My cerebral palsy, for example, effects my ability to move, walk and talk. The question therefore arises: how could hoarding effect your quality of life to a similarly significant degree?

I think it’s fair to say that we all collect or hoard things we like. I have quite a large collection of books and DVDs: I hardly watch or read any of them these days, but as I wrote here, they are nonetheless significant to me. Does that therefore qualify me as a hoarder; and might it mean that I have a psychological condition?

I don’t think that it does, particularly given that all my books and films are neatly filed away on my bookshelf. If my books and DVDs were strewn all over my flat to the point that I could barely move, it would be a different question. That obviously gives rise to questions about cut-off points, any of which will inevitably be arbitrary and subjective. Although I can see how excessive hoarding may cause issues, especially if people are living in small houses or flats, if it does not prevent someone from living a productive, happy life, I think that pathologising such behaviour might do more harm than good.

Most obviously perhaps, would it not just serve to reinforce such behaviour? As soon as you give anyone a label or identity of any kind, they unconsciously internalise that identity; they start to emphasise the traits which mark them out as a member of that group, often without realising it. It becomes part of their identity, and ultimately creates yet another artificial sub-category with which society can fragment itself even more. Thus as soon as you label someone as a hoarder they will start to identify as a hoarder and start to hoard even more.

Moreover, in pathologising a fairly common, rather innocuous set of behaviours, in defining them as a medical condition, I feel we are making things too complicated. Why must everything be categorised and diagnosed? While medical diagnosises sometimes help people access the support they need, in this case, if their behaviour isn’t harming them, why not just let people do what they are to? Would it not be wiser to just accept people as they are, without labelling them as strange, abnormal or impaired?