ABSTRACT
Hoarding behavior may be a disorder in its own category, with distress and dysfunction as determining factors. Distinguishing hoarding from other anxiety and mood disorders is difficult because hoarders tend to be ashamed of their disorder and standoffish or unreceptive to those who would impede their activities. Hoarders are both intimate with and embarrassed by the same matter, creating the tension of the opposites, a double life with their interaction with their objects. The origins of compulsive behaviors in individuals are just as challenging to pinpoint, resulting in diagnosis and treatment of this population being challenging. James Hollis mirrors this clinical standpoint from a depth perspective in his book The Eden Project. He states that soul demands growth but is stifled when a person falls in love with love. Life is a continual balancing of opposites, like every other energic process. The soul wishes its fullest expression; therefore, psyche will express its protest through activated complexes.
