Psychoanalysis and Its Curious Take on Collecting

Why Do We Collect?

Psychoanalyst Werner Muensterberger had a bold answer: collecting isn’t driven by curiosity, but by early emotional tension. In Collecting: An Unruly Passion (1994), he describes collecting as a cycle of anticipation, acquisition, and brief relief. That moment of “I found it!” calms the inner restlessness — until the next search begins. However, a richer understanding of collecting requires more than the pseudo-science of psychoanalysis.

Collector and psychoanalyst Werner Muensterberger (1913-2011). Photo by Deniz Saylan.

The Case of Sir Thomas Phillipps

The book’s first part consists of a series of chapters that explain the motives for collecting through a psychoanalytic lens. The second part examines various case studies of collectors, followed by historical excursions in subsequent sections.

The first case study concerns a book collector: the infamous bibliomaniac Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792–1872). Phillipps aspired to own a copy of every book in existence—a goal he naturally could not achieve, though by the end of his life, he possessed the largest manuscript collection ever assembled by an individual.

Yet, Phillipps was driven less by a love of content and more by an obsession with quantity. His mania for acquisition left little time for reading. The relentless hunt for new acquisitions consumed his life and wreaked havoc on the lives of his wife and children. Furthermore, he impoverished many booksellers by refusing to pay, or delaying payment on, his substantial bills.

Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1st Bt by Alexander George Todalbumen carte-de-visite, late 1860s-early 1870s. National Portrait Gallery, NPG x12731.

Psychoanalysis and the Motives of Collectors

This case, according to Muensterberger, serves to validate the theories expounded in the first part of his study. Collecting, he argues, stems from a traumatic experience in early childhood. The collector attempts to compensate for a sense of loss and to mitigate feelings of loneliness and fear by surrounding themselves with objects imbued with a quasi-magical significance. Moreover, collectors exhibit a "phallic-narcissistic personality," embody the "anal type," and can best be likened to drug addicts who experience a fleeting euphoria after each acquisition.

Critique of Muensterberger’s Theories

For such theories, the case of the unhinged Phillipps is undoubtedly apt. According to Muensterberger, Phillipps began collecting to compensate for a lack of maternal affection. There are indeed other book collectors who might partially fit Phillipps’s profile; in the Netherlands, Boudewijn Büch is perhaps a notable example.

Yet it is peculiar that Muensterberger shows no interest in the cultural-historical value of collections. This omission is especially glaring in the study of book collections. Books are not merely texts; they are objects. However, it is equally evident that books derive much of their significance from their abstract content—the information they contain, be it texts or images. Muensterberger seems to overlook this entirely. For him, a book is just another object, and book collecting is fundamentally no different from amassing knick-knacks.

The Intellectual Side of Collecting

Muensterberger could have selected countless historical and contemporary collectors for whom book collecting was far more than a mere addiction or a quest to compensate for maternal deprivation.

Figures like Isaac Vossius, Gabriel Naudé, Christina of Sweden, Duke August of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Anna Amalia, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Hans Sloane, Joseph Banks, Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, Umberto Eco, and Aaron Lansky—to name but a few prominent examples—built significant libraries. These collectors undoubtedly had diverse motivations for assembling their collections, but intellectual curiosity was clearly a key driver.

Conclusion

Collecting can soothe the mind, yes — but it also shapes cultural heritage. Libraries, archives, and private collections preserve knowledge, transmit stories, and keep history accessible long after the collector is gone. A psychological reading is interesting, but the full picture emerges only when we include cultural history, intellectual curiosity, and the simple joy of discovery.