Know Thyself

From Sinostrotek.com:

In psychiatric circles, collecting is seen as a fairly benign disorder.
According to Alen Salerian, director of the Washington Psychiatric Center, the
need to collect anything stems from a serotonin deficiency. Serotonin is the
enzyme that controls worries; with too little of the former you get too much of
the latter. “It’s a form of addiction, if you want to call it that. The current
thinking in neuroscience is that people with serotonin deficiencies are much
more driven to compulsions, including the compulsion to collect. Various life
events may disturb you and prompt that compulsion.

Those with lower levels of serotonin are believed to have higher appetites – whether for sex, alcohol, gambling or original copies of the “Scythian Suite”.

This condition is more common among creative types. “There is a very close link
between creativity and dysfunction of the nervous system – it’s a part of a mood
disorder package that artistic people have a higher chance of suffering from. As
for collecting, the line I would draw is whether a person’s life is compromised
because of this habit.