ABSTRACT
Although compulsive buying was first reported in the psychiatric literature in the early part of the twentieth century (Kraeplin 1915; Bleuler 1924), the vast majority of our knowledge regarding this problem has emerged in the past decade. During this time, compulsive buying has been studied by researchers from a range of disciplines, and through a number of different research techniques. What has emerged is a realization that this problem can stem from a variety of causes and may take on several different forms. This is consistent with research across a number of various addictive or excessive behaviors that suggest that, each disorder can serve many different functions for different individuals or even for a single person (Orford 1985).
