[lit-ideas] Re: a question for the sages here
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 18:53:30 -0800
On Mar 15, 2006, at 6:02 PM, Paul Stone wrote:
Does anyone know if there's a word for "addicted to collecting" like
something-philia. Of course there are very specific philias, but is
there a technical/medical term for collecting for the sake of
collecting?
paul
In 1994 there was no such word in use among the followers of Freud.
This I know from perusing the sixteen pages of bibliography in Werner
Muensterberger, "Collecting: An Unruly Passion." There is mention of
"bibliomania," but not of any general mania identified with collecting.
What I don't have to hand is the volume that psychologists use to code
and bill; this would tell you whether or not collecting has officially
become an ailment. Since there are dementias that express themselves
with obsessive collecting of newspapers and string and so on, I
wouldn't be astonished if you found that a new ailment has been
identified. On the way in which ailments gain currency in the medical
marketplace see R.D. Ritchie, "One History of Shellshock" Ph.D. thesis
UCSD, 1986.
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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