ABSTRACT
There are commonalities in behavior between hoarders and mythological dragons. Imagination and lifestyle is where a person's myth comes alive: a person's fantasy becomes a way of life. Joseph Campbell eloquently defined myth in The Power of Myth as "stories of our search through the ages for truth, for meaning, for significance" and stressed the importance of telling and understanding our own stories and the "need for life to signify, to touch the eternal, to understand the mysterious" in order to comprehend who we are. The personal myth hoarders live by is one of value and worth seen through the potential of their objects. The more they possess, the more of their life can be recorded, helping them achieve a sense of self. Matt Paxton, owner of Clutter Cleaner and a popular expert on hoarding, concludes that, the only way they see to ease their pain is to literally and figuratively bury themselves more deeply".
