A “Chaos of Delight”

Reviews the book, Andy Warhol Was a Hoarder: Inside the Minds of History's Great Personalities by Claudia Kalb (see record 2016-12824-000). Andy Warhol’s inability to divest his living space of junk is just one of a set of interesting glimpses into the eccentric and often psychopathological behavior of a distinguished set of celebrities and luminaries that comprise this book. Kalb has selected an odd mix of 12 contemporary and historical figures, each used to illustrate a different mental disorder. The book’s accessible, entertaining, and often heartbreaking set of vignettes will appeal to readers who wish to learn more about symptoms of mental illness that lurk behind the public personas of many cultural icons. Psychologists and clinicians with a working knowledge of psychopathology may find the descriptions of mental disorders somewhat simplistic but will find the biographical aspects of the vignettes fascinating. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)