Identity

If we take a look at the motivation to collect from a psychological viewpoint in the traditional Freudian         fashion, Muensterberger(1994) suggests that collecting relates to 'unresolved childhood fantasies but, if this is the case why do so many children feel the need to collect things?

There are many different types of collectors and the reasoning behind each of these can be quite different but I would like to examine the connection with personal identity.

It is regularly presumed that persons who collect are seen as consumers who purely  derive pleasure from the act of consumption itself. Baudrillard sees the consumer as the victims as we are tied into the sign values of goods that is the sign/image construction and their meaning.
As we become more aware of who we are as people, we evolve an awareness of collecting things that denote our identities or at least part of it. How we arrange these objects also distinguishes a sense of self and this is especially true of those things that we choose to put in our own surroundings.

As Ewan & Ewan put it ,

' today there are no ....rules only choices' ( Ewan & Ewan 1982:249-51) and hence ' everyone can be anyone.

 What we buy for our homes can be a route to our individual expression.This consciousness can be especially pronounced as we enter adolescence as we are trying to break away from parental tastes and trends, often fighting against a known establishment. Some however find that their parents choices have become their own.
Individuality is a sense of selfhood and the conviction that we have free choice. It can also be a symbol of integration or differentiation.

Foucault believes that the identity is tied up with the nature of self.

 Collecting old objects from bygone eras can be seen to be as a way of creating a new style or even possibly a new identity, through the connotations that envelope these items. Since the arrival of postmodern times  people have been keen to create identity cocoons which reflect them as they wish others to see them. More often than not this is created with an eclectic mix of styles from various time scale.
Authenticity of class and style dissolve within the collections of these random objects.These items do not need to be antiques or expensive heirlooms but are often mass produced bits of kitsch which take on a new 'value' with their irony. Often the more bizarre or risky (racist, feminist, naive) the item the more desirable they will be as they will stimulate discursive narratives.

Modern consumerism is supposed to be connected to the ideology of individualism we make the choice of what we wish to buy. This is so to a point, however in todays market we are constantly led along routes of conformity  from the various  directions, bombarded with adverts tied into our specific data which has been collected, unknown to us, through algorithmic means. We are enticed to buy the latest electronic devices, the newest designs of household goods etc. In past generations you furnished your home when you got married and little would be bought in the latter years. Most do now conform to the disposable society and as a result our homes have become homogenised. Purchasing things from the past is a method of regaining identity by consuming items that are not found in everyone else's homes.