> The hoarder distorts reality, and imagines a world where the item holds some non-zero value in the remote future.
Nicely put. It is fascinating how often the brain can create a reality of its own, and how its perceptual and predictive machinery can be prone to "bugs".
Interesting explaination, for me objects can also hold a negative value, they take up space — both physically and mentally — and it costs energy to maintain them by keeping them clean and keeping an order with the objects around them. And I say that as a person with a ton of stuff.
Some close friends of mine are hoarders and I can't help but feel that hoarders have a hard time valuing themselves or their time as more important as the objects they hold onto and the time/living space it takes to keep them. The ones that I know definitly have a hard time genuinly loving themselves and a lot of what they do (including the hoarding) seems to deal with that in some sense.
Curiously hoarders sometimes have pockets of pristine order, be it some sort of hobby or their linux home folder, while other spaces are in a complete state of disarray.
I would say it's an inability to execute the 'correct' decision society has imposed on them. Hoarders can make decisions just as well as anyone. Their unique 'problem' occurs when it's apparent to everyone but the hoarder that it's time to discard an item. It's always something that has almost zero vale, but never none. The hoarder distorts reality, and imagines a world where the item retains some low value in the remote future. My feeling is that it's somewhat linked to gambling addiction. It's as if they were a poker player, constantly buying into games for hundredths of a cent. It doesn't really matter what cards they're dealt. They never need to fold, so they never need to discard a truly terrible hand. In fact, they retain a very slight chance of winning a penny by sticking with it every time.