Collections: The Psychology of Collecting

"To be a collector is never to be satisfied, to continue on with the thrumming frustration that there's something else you need, want, crave, even if you have no idea what it is."
- Laura Lippman

This morning I did a google search on the Psychology of collectors. It's something I've never considered before when I think about collectors, and I myself as a collector. I know that as a child I would collect things to be like my older sister, often trying to collect the same things as her, Stickers, Koala memorabilia and animals of farthing wood magazines. It gave me something to present to my friends when they would come to play. As I began to develop my own tastes and ideas I eventually made my own collections. Although still tacky, I would keep a display shelf on my wall above my bed of miniature pot animals, I'd collect rubbers from day trips and holidays and plastic toys from weetos. Along with this, I collected Barbies and sulvanian families, these were things I could actually play with and had a real purpose in my development.
As I grew into adolescence I began to collect magazines, music posters, CDs, then I became a lot more eclectic with my collecting, only keeping hold of design books, trendy magazines, personal photographs/journals, folders of interesting cut outs I'd collected and compiled and the odd stylishly tasteless ornament. (oh, and the 100's of ticket stubs)(and shoes)(and badges). So this is where I'm at now.
    In this article by Mark B Mckinley, which I found during my google search, there is an interesting part in which he refers to Sigmund Freud's idea of collectors;

 'He postulated that collecting ties back to the time of toilet training, of course. Freud suggested that the loss of control and what went down the toilet was a traumatic occurrence and that, therefore, the collector is trying to gain back not only control but “possessions” that were lost so many years ago.'

Hmmmmmm. not.too.sure how I feel about that. But as Mckinley goes on to say; "...well thats Freud." 

I say; "Indeed."

 He then moves from the term 'collecting' to 'hoarding', then examines the difference between the two, describing hoarding as 'emotional attachments to objects, erroneous beliefs about possessions and other maladaptive beliefs.' and states that some "experts" call the psychopathology of hoarding a "syndrome". 

'Hoarding as pathology' is Mckinley's last sub-title, in it he writes; 

"Probably the extreme illustration of this is the person who harms others in his/her passion for “collecting.” Such extreme pathology is referenced by “animal or people hoarders.” The former is the person we read about in the local paper with a headline that reads: “Local Woman Found with 100s of Filthy, Diseased, Malnourished Cats.” On the other hand, there are those collectors who collect people, as in serial killers. Movies such as The Collector, The Bone Collector and Kiss the Girls portray such persons in a context of a thrilling mystery for the entertainment of movie goers."

Extreme Huh!? But a very interesting aspect of the word 'Collection'. Its not all about teddy bears and stamps.

On a much more shallow learning kind of approach, I found this interesting autobiography about Laura Lippman's collection of folk art (particularly Mexican). I particularly like her views on collecting, such as;

"Collecting itself can be a dangerous, misunderstood act, a compulsion forever on the verge of getting out of hand. Back in the mid-'80s, about the same time I started collecting folk art, my mother hung a lovely lithograph of a watermelon in her home, then commissioned a neon watermelon. Multiple watermelons followed her, harassed her, overtook her, until she had to issue a no-more-watermelons edict."