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Compulsive Hoarding: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2010

Stephen Kellett ,
Rebecca Greenhalgh ,
Nigel Beail  and
Nicola Ridgway
Stephen Kellett*
Affiliation:
Centre for Psychological Services Research, University of Sheffield, UK
Rebecca Greenhalgh
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield, UK
Nigel Beail
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield, UK
Nicola Ridgway
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow, UK
*
Reprint requests to Stephen Kellett, Clinical Psychology Unit, University of Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK. E-mail: s.kellett@sheffield.ac.uk
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Abstract

Background: This project aimed to explore the experiences of people who compulsively hoard and how they make sense of their own hoarding behaviours. Method: A total of 11 compulsive hoarders were recruited and interviewed using a simple semi-structured interview format, designed for the purposes of the study. The resulting transcribed interviews were analyzed using interpretive-phenomenological analysis. Results: Four super-ordinate discrete, but interacting, themes were found: (1) childhood factors; (2) the participants' relationship to their hoarded items; (3) cognitive and behavioural avoidance of discard; and (4) the impact of hoarding on self, others and the home environment. The themes as a whole described people entrapped in massively cluttered physical environments of their own making. Efforts at discard appeared consistently sabotaged by cognitive/behavioural avoidance, thereby creating maintaining factors of associated personal distress and environmental decline. Conclusions: The results are discussed in the context of the extant evidence concerning hoarding, the distinct contribution made by the current results and the identified methodological shortcomings of the research approach.

Keywords

hoardingIPAfusionfantasy
Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , March 2010 , pp. 141 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2010

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