Terry Prone: Hoarding’s hidden issues begin to emerge from the background
It’s difficult to diagnose sufferers, because the evidence for them having the disorder is concealed within their own homes
Standing on junk, a policeman lifts a box of rubbish on the second floor of the decaying Collyer mansion in March 1947. Picture: Tom Watson/NY Daily News/Getty
The chances are that you’ve never heard of the pair whose lives may illustrate one of the international crises consequent upon humans living longer. However, you will begin to hear of the Collyer brothers as the personification of an emerging public health threat.
The two brothers had a privileged background.
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