Collecting An Unruly Passion * Psychological Perspectives (Princeton Legacy Library)

By Werner Münsterberger and Werner Muensterberger

Book Overview

From rare books, valuable sculpture and paintings, the relics of saints, and porcelain and other precious items, through stamps, textiles, military ribbons, and shells, to baseball cards, teddy bears, and mugs, an amazing variety of objects have engaged and even obsessed collectors through the ages. With this captivating book the psychoanalyst Werner Muensterberger provides the first extensive psychological examination of the emotional sources of the never-ending longing for yet another collectible. Muensterberger's roster of driven acquisition-hunters includes the dedicated, the serious, and the infatuated, whose chronic restlessness can be curbed--and then merely temporarily--only by purchasing, discovering, receiving, or even stealing a new "find." In an easy, conversational style, the author discusses the eccentricities of heads of state, literary figures, artists, and psychoanalytic patients, all possessed by a need for magic relief from despair and helplessness--and for the self-healing implied in the phrase "I can't live without it " The sketches here are diverse indeed: Walter Benjamin, Mario Praz, Catherine the Great, Poggio Bracciolini, Brunelleschi, and Jean de Berry, among others. The central part of the work explores in detail the personal circumstances and life history of three individuals: a contemporary collector, Martin G; the celebrated British book and manuscript collector Sir Thomas Phillipps, who wanted one copy of every book in the world; and the great French novelist Honor de Balzac, a compulsive collector of bric-a-brac who expressed his empathy for the acquisitive passions of his collector protagonist in Cousin Pons . In addition, Muensterberger takes the reader on a charming tour of collecting in the Renaissance and looks at collecting during the Golden Age of Holland, in the seventeenth century. Throughout, we enjoy the author's elegant variations on a complicated theme, stated, much too simply, by John Steinbeck: "I guess the truth is that I simply like junk." Originally published in 1993. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691033617
• ISBN13: 9780691033617
• Release Date: November 1993
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 324 Pages
• Weight: 1.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 1.3" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Analysis - Recognized Myself On Almost Every Page

I could not put this book down from the minute I started reading it and recognized myself on almost every page. As an inveterate collector, many of the observations related to the behavior of "monomaniacal" collectors rang absolutely true and sometimes uncomfortably hit home. While some the the Freudian psychoanalysis may be a little off [or at the very least subjective], these analyses are not the crux of the book and it should not be mistaken for a jargon-laden treatise. Instead, the many descriptions of various collectors and their motivations, habits, rituals and behaviors were - in my own personal experience - completely spot-on. In fact, I wish the book was twice as long! If I had any critical comments, they would only be that there were not enough contemporary profiles of collectors and perhaps too much focus on historical figures and the collecting trends of various historical periods. All-in-all a very informative, insightful and though-provoking read...a must for hard-core collectors!

Psychology collectors may fear!

The case studies are quite entertaining. The analysis of the drive to collect as a way to undo inner anxiety, stress and childhood trauma seems dubious, but who can say? Collectors may scoff at the analysis, or they may enjoy it....