Description: Stuff by Randy Frost, Gail Steketee With vivid portraits that show the traits by which a hoarder can be identified, Frost and Steketee explore the compulsion through a series of compelling case studies, and illuminate the pull that possessions exert on all of us. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description A New York Times BestsellerAcclaimed psychologists Randy Frost and Gail Sketetees groundbreaking study on the compulsion of hoarding, "Stuff invites readers to reevaluate their desire for things" (Boston Globe).What possesses someone to save every scrap of paper thats 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?When Frost and Steketee became the first scientists to study hoarding, they expected to find a few sufferers. Instead, they uncovered an epidemic, treating hundreds of patients and fielding thousands of calls from the families of others, exploring 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 were 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. Back Cover New York Times Bestseller "Gripping... by turns fascinating and heartbreaking... Stuff invites readers to reevaluate their desire for things." -- Boston Globe "Authoritative." --Wall Street JournalWhat possesses someone to fill warehouses with unread magazines? Or to pack a house so full that clearing it out must be done from the top down--lest the upper story collapse? When Randy Frost and Gail Steketee became the first scientists to study hoarding, they expected to find a few sufferers. Instead, they uncovered a startling epidemic. Now, they distill the results of more than a decade of research into a series of engrossing and intimate case studies. Through towering piles on sofas and beds, vast mountains of paper that the hoarders "churn" but never discard, even a nest of more than two hundred cats, Frost and Steketee illuminate the pull that possessions exert on all of us. Probing the disquieting place where normal and abnormal blur, they answer the question: What happens when our stuff starts to own us?"Fascinating . . . A good mix of cultural and psychological theories on hoarding." -- Newsweek Dr. Randy Frost is Professor of Psychology at Smith College and an internationally known expert on obsessive-compulsive disorder and compulsive hoarding, as well as the pathology of perfectionism. Dr. Gail Steketee is Professor and Dean at Boston University in the School of Social Work. Together they have studied hoarding for more than a decade, and published a clinical treatment manual and a self-help handbook for hoarding. They have appeared on numerous television and radio shows and given hundreds of lectures on the subject nationally and internationally. Author Biography Dr. Randy Frost is Professor of Psychology at Smith College and an internationally known expert on obsessive-compulsive disorder and compulsive hoarding, as well as the pathology of perfectionism. Dr. Gail Steketee is Professor and Acting Dean at Boston University in the School of Social Work. Together they have studied hoarding for more than a decade, and published a clinical treatment manual and a self-help handbook for hoarding. They have appeared on numerous television and radio shows and given hundreds of lectures on the subject nationally and internationally. Review "Pioneering researchers offer a superb overview of a complex disorder that interferes with the lives of more than six-million Americans. . . . Writing with authority and compassion, the authors tell the stories of diverse men and women who acquire and accumulate possessions to the point where their apartments or homes are dangerously cluttered with mounds of newspapers, clothing and other objects. . . . An absorbing, gripping, important report." --Kirkus (starred) "Like those classics of psychological study, A. R. Lurias The Mind of the Mnemonist and Oliver Sackss The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Stuff is authoritative, haunting, and mysterious. It is also intensely, not to say compulsively readable."--Tracy Kidder "A fascinating book--Stuff is the stuff of nightmares, of people living in a world subsumed by their obsession to collect and hoard things. You will surely recognize, to one degree or another, a part of yourself in these portraits."--Jonathan Harr, author of The Lost Painting and A Civil Action "Eye-opening... Frost and Steketee write with real sympathy and appreciation for hoarders...This succinct, illuminating book will prove helpful to hoarders, their families, and mental health professionals who work with them." -- Publishers Weekly"An excellent starting point for family, friends, and neighbors of hoarders, but the vivid writing will attract readers who enjoy fiction or memoirs about extreme behavior." -- Library Journal, starred review "Very intriguing. . . Most readers will recognize some aspects of themselves in the people the authors discuss. We may not be hoarders exactly, but the authors make us take a closer look at our own lives, wondering (for example) about that very fine line that divides a collector from a hoarder. Fascinating stuff." -- Booklist"Fascinating." -- People"[The authors] invite us graciously into territory that might otherwise make us squirm . . .To those who need to understand hoarders, perhaps in their own family, Stuff offers perspective. For general readers, it is likely to provide useful stimulus for examining how we form and justify our own attachments to objects." -- New York Times Book Review"Stuff is worth reading not only because of the authors authority on the subject, but also because of its elegant prose, and its nuanced and well-researched take on the subject." -- Salon.com "[The authors] examples are rich in storytelling and dialogue, and they admirably balance a fascination with the psychological profiles of their subject with a deep sympathy for their plights . . . The book is a valuable study of a poorly understood condition." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune "Amazing... Utterly engrossing." -- Washington Post "Gripping . . . A highly readable account of this perplexing impulse . . . The book succeeds beyond mere voyeurism, because Stuff invites readers to reevaluate their desire for things." -- Boston Globe -- Review Quote "[Stuff] urges us to break out of the cycle of buying, storing and wasting before its too late." Excerpt from Book PILES UPON PILES The Story of Hoarding I attach meaning to things that dont need it. --Irene I spotted Irenes home immediately. Despite its commanding view of the countryside from atop a hill, it was dark and gloomy. Overgrown trees and bushes hid much of the house from the street. The paint was peeling, and the fence needed mending. A car parked in the driveway was packed with papers and clothes. I had brought along my student assistant, Tamara Hartl, and as we walked toward the house, we could see boxes, newspapers, clothes, and an assortment of unidentifiable objects pressed against the windows. We knocked on the front door but got no answer. We found a side door and knocked. Something stirred inside the house. Behind us, a door to the garage opened, and out stepped Irene, slightly overweight and rumpled, with straight brown hair and a friendly smile. She introduced herself with a nervous laugh and invited us in: "You cant get in that way. Youll have to come through the garage." A sea of boxes, bags, ski poles, tools, everything imaginable--all in a jumble, chest-high--covered the entire length and width of the garage. Along the wall was a narrow pathway to the only door to her house that was not blocked by debris. The foreboding exterior of the house belied Irenes personality. She was friendly, bright, and engaging and very curious about our research. Like others weve interviewed, she was tormented by her situation and demoralized by her inability to do anything about it. Though happy to see us, she worried that she was wasting our time, since her problems were of "no consequence to anyone but me." In Irene Id found an extraordinarily articulate and insightful subject. I agreed to work with her as she tried to clear her home. In exchange, she agreed to describe everything she felt and thought during the process and not to filter out any reactions, positive or negative. Irene lived about ninety miles from my college in Northampton, Massachusetts, which meant a long drive for each visit with her (forty-five visits over eighteen months). Each visit lasted about two hours. Tamara accompanied me on most of the trips. On our way to Irenes home, wed review what we had learned the week before, and on the way back wed discuss the visit as Tamara made notes on a laptop. By the last of our sessions with Irene, we had generated a theory for hoarding--a framework for future research and a major breakthrough in understanding the phenomenon. Some theorists have posited that people with hoarding tendencies form attachments to possessions instead of people. Erich Fromm claimed that a "hoarding orientation" leads to social withdrawal. Hoarders, he suggested, are remote and suspicious, preferring the company of objects to that of people. Indeed, for some people prone to acute social discomfort, possessions can be stable and comfortable companions. Irene, however, defied this categorization. She had a wide circle of friends, some of whom I met in the course of my work with her. They displayed a great deal of affection for her, and she for them. She had a quick wit and a well-developed sense of humor. It was easy to see why people liked her. She laughed readily and was often amused by the ironies of her plight. One day, as she pondered why she had saved a newspaper ad for new tires, she fell into gales of laughter when she noticed the headline: SAVE THIS AD. She was also quick to shed tears when she encountered something sentimental, such as a picture drawn by her son when he was a toddler. With Irene as a model, the classic definition of hoarding as a socially isolating syndrome appeared to be flawed. One of Irenes favorite things, she said, was to make connections between people with mutual interests. She would frequently give me the names of people she thought would click with me. She planned to give many of the things she saved to friends and acquaintances for whom they seemed suited. Unfortunately, her gift of seeing these connections was a factor in her keeping virtually everything she acquired. Irene was intelligent and well educated. She seemed to know something about almost every subject and displayed curiosity and a wide range of interests. She had a story to tell about each possession--most of them remarkably detailed and engaging. For instance, one day she found a piece of paper with a name and phone number on it among the pile of things on her kitchen table and excitedly recounted its history: "This is a young girl I met at a store about a year ago. Shes Hawaiian and had such wonderful stories about Hawaii that I thought Julia [Irenes daughter] would like to write to her. They are about the same age. She was such an interesting person, I was sure Julia would enjoy getting to know her." Her face lit up at the prospect of making this connection. "But Julia wasnt interested. I thought about writing her myself, but I never did. Still, I dont want to get rid of the contact. Julia might change her mind." I have met few people who are as interested in the world around them as Irene, though I later learned that this attribute is fairly common in people with hoarding problems. As she talked, I could see the way each of her things was connected to her and how they formed the fabric of her life. The advertisement for the tires led to a story about her car, which led to a story about her daughter wanting to drive, and so on. A piece of the hoarding puzzle seemed to be falling into place. Instead of replacing people with possessions, Irene was using possessions to make connections between people and to the world at large. As we were soon to learn, the hoarding phenomenon is composed of a number of discrete factors, some well hidden and unexpected. But the most obvious factor was the simple problem of accumulation: from a scrap of paper with an unidentified and long-forgotten phone number on it to a broken vase purchased at a tag sale, Irene had great difficulty getting rid of things. The value she assigned to objects and the reasons she had for saving them were many and varied. Irenes beliefs about what should be saved seemed isolated from everything going on around her. She was truly baffled that her son and daughter didnt share her penchant for keeping things. One day, as she went through the mound on her kitchen table, she found instructions for one of her sons toys. "Ill put it here in this pile of your stuff, Eric," she told him when he got home from school. Eric immediately picked up the instructions, walked to the wastebasket, and threw them away. She stopped what she was doing, looking surprised. Eric saw her and responded angrily, "I dont need it. I know how it works." She didnt say anything. A few minutes later, she found a bookmark. "Oh, this has all the book award people on it. Do you want it, Eric? Ill put it in your pile." "No," he responded before shed finished her sentence. "Dont you even want to look at it?" she asked incredulously. A few minutes after that, she found an old birthday card someone had sent Eric. She put it on top of the pile of things she was saving for him without saying anything. Almost as if on cue, he walked by, picked it up, and threw it out. Irene stared at him in disbelief. She simply could not comprehend his lack of interest in things she considered full of significance. The sense of emotional attachment that Irene felt for her possessions has been shared with us over and over by people seeking help with their hoarding problems. These sentiments are really not that different from what most of us feel about keepsakes or souvenirs--the abnormality lies not in the nature of the attachments, but in their intensity and extremely broad scope. I find many articles of interest in the newspaper, but their value to me is reduced when piles of newspapers begin to impinge on my living space and overwhelm my ability to read what I have collected. For Irene, the value of these things seemed unaffected by the trouble they caused. Hoarding involves not only difficulty with getting rid of things but also excessive acquisition of them. Irenes upstairs hallway contained hundreds of shopping bags filled with what she described as gifts for other people. Whenever she saw something that she thought might make a great gift, she purchased it, even though she had no particular recipient in mind. The items were all still in their original wrappings. Many people shop ahead to have gifts on hand when the need arises, but Irene and many like her cannot control their urge to buy when they see something they fancy. In addition to buying excessively, Irene collected things that could be had for free. She had an agreement with the postmaster of her town: he placed any newspapers or magazines that were undeliverable in a box, and on Saturday morning he put the box in the foyer of the post office, where Irene picked it up. Her home was stuffed with these free newspapers and magazines. The Tour: "Homogenized" Clutter On our first visit, Irene gave us a tour of her house. Hustling through each room, she held her arms up in front of her bent at the wrists with her hands drooping down, like a surgeon who had just scrubbed for an operation. Her small steps propelled her deftly through the maze in each room. She insisted that we not touch anything, and she watched us carefully as we negotiated the space. It was hard to avoid touching things in some places because there was so little room to move; the stacks rose to the ceiling. Several things struck me about her hoard. Description for Bookstore HMH hardcover 2010 Previous ISBN 978-0-15-101423-1 Details ISBN0547422555 Author Gail Steketee Short Title STUFF Language English ISBN-10 0547422555 ISBN-13 9780547422558 Media Book Format Paperback Year 2011 Publication Date 2011-01-04 Subtitle Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things Audience Age 14 Imprint Houghton Mifflin Place of Publication Boston Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2011-01-04 NZ Release Date 2011-01-04 US Release Date 2011-01-04 UK Release Date 2011-01-04 Pages 304 Publisher Cengage Learning, Inc DEWEY 616.85227 Audience Teenage / Young adult Imprint US HarperOne Publisher US HarperCollins We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:43664117;
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Book Title: Stuff
