Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-2025
Publication Title
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy
Abstract
Background: Individuals with hoarding disorder exhibit heightened attachment to objects, but little is known about possible drivers of object attachment and associated object saving behaviors. Theory and preliminary evidence posit that the heightened object attachment characteristic of hoarding disorder may be partially explained by the experience of vivid,‘Proustian’ memories related to objects.
Aims: The current study piloted a novel Proustian Memory Task to examine whether self-reported vividness of memories associated with cherished objects, mundane objects, and non-objects was associated with greater urge to save objects and greater hoarding symptoms.
Method: Participants (N= 443) included a non-selected community sample recruited from the crowd-sourcing platform Prolific. Participants were asked to identify and describe a memory associated with their most cherished belonging, a mundane belonging, and a recent vacation (i.e. non-object control). Participants also reported their urge to save the identified objects and completed a self-report measure of hoarding symptoms.
Results: Hoarding symptoms were not associated with vividness of memories of cherished objects, or with non-objects, but were associated with greater vividness of memories of mundane objects. Greater vividness of memories associated with objects was associated with a greater urge to save both cherished and mundane objects; however, this relationship was stronger for mundane compared with cherished objects. The relationship between memory vividness and urge to save objects was not impacted by hoarding symptoms.
Conclusions: Findings provide preliminary evidence that the experience of Proustian memories, particularly those related to mundane objects, may play a role in object attachment and hoarding symptoms.
Keywords
hoarding, object attachment, memory, Proust effect
DOI
10.1017/S135246582510115X
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Rights
© The Author(s), 2025.
Version
Version of Record
Recommended Citation
Milgram, Lauren; Xu, Junjia; Frost, Randy O.; Offermann, Elizabeth A.; and Timpano, Kiara R., "The Proust Effect and Hoarding Symptoms: Relationships among Memory Vividness, Object Type, and Urge to Save" (2025). Psychology: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/psy_facpubs/252