Excessive Wealth as a Manifestation of Hoarding Disorder: An Introduction

We were scrolling through the annals of Research Gate when we stumbled over a piece titled ‘Understanding and Treating Hoarding: A Biopsychosocial Perspective’. This seemed a bit heavy for a blog like this and we trolled for more information.

An Historic Link Between Psychology and Money

The psychology of money has not received much attention, because outside the wealthy many regard it as ‘foul and corrupt’. However, the New York Times stuck its neck out in September 2008 when it mentioned ‘money disorder’ being behind the self-destructive behavior of the nouveau riche who suddenly came into it.

Adaptive behaviour and what money can buy

Excessive wealth as a manifestation of hoarding disorder can arise out of the basic instinct to survive, that drove our human civilization. However, nowadays there’s no need to accumulate physical just-in-case things. Money is a universal store of value. 

Miserliness developing as emotions activate neural pathways

Psychologist Sigmund Freud wondered whether hoarding house clearance coins was an adaptive form of behaviour.  That’s because we need not touch them to enjoy them in our minds. When we have feelings about objects, including money, these create neural links between concepts in our individual brain cells.

Consumption items acquiring special value as possessions

Consumption objects evolved in western societies when wealthy people began to have money left over after ensuring their survival. They spent it on objects such as jewellery and precious works of art. The value of these possessions resided in their minds. They did not regard these as commodities to trade. Their value was almost sacred to them.

A New Concept for Us, Fungability AKA Readily Exchangeable

However, these bespoke possessions were hard to value accurately, because their worth resided in the viewer’s mind. They were not practical for settling debts, or valuing for probate purposes. Hoarding money worked around this problem because it was the ultimately fungible commodity.