In a Psychology Today essay, Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother’s Compulsive Hoarding author Jessie Sholl criticized Mark Medley‘s “Confessions of a Book Hoarder” essay as “flippant and smirky.”
Sholl (pictured, via) wrote about how we misuse the term “hoarder” in popular culture–disrespecting people who suffer from the mental disorder. What do you think?
Sholl explained: “Just because you have a lot of books, that doesn’t mean you’re a bibliomaniac. Can you walk through the room in which your books are stored? Have you depleted any of your life savings on these books? … Since my memoir came out, numerous people have confessed to me that they think they’re hoarders, too … you might have packed bookcases and, yes, too many books, but that doesn’t mean you’re a book hoarder.”