Marsha Taylor writes, In the forthcoming book entitled Serious Shopping: Essays in Psychotherapy and Consumerism, I have written a chapter entitled "From Harrods to Holloway: When Compulsive Shopping Is Not an Option" which examines clinical similarities and differences between those who shop and those who shoplift compulsively. An excerpt from the chapter follows.
I get nice things for myself nice designer clothes, like. If I don't go to Harrods one Saturday and get something, I feel really bad in the middle of the week and I'm like: "Let's Go! Let's hurry up and get there!"
This description of feelings about what might be routine Saturday shopping sprees comes from a strikingly attractive British-born woman of non-European ethnic origin who appears younger than her 29 years. The visits to Harrods, which 'Sara' -- not her real name -- describes as an almost-weekly feature of her life since late adolescence, now take place only in memory. For the time being, 'Sara' must recall these regular outings to "get nice things" from a cell in Her Majesty's Prison Holloway, where she serves a six-month custodial sentence for shoplifting: "I see things that I want, things that I could never afford, and I take them."
HMP Holloway, the largest women's correctional facility in western Europe, sprawls over several acres of land in north-central London -- geographically little more than a short taxi ride from the glittering and perfumed halls of Harrods but metaphorically a world away.
In many respects 'Sara' represents a rather typical Holloway inmate since, like her, about two in three are aged between 21 and 39, over three in four holds British nationality and one in five enters Holloway for crimes involving theft and handling of stolen property, the category that takes in shoplifting and other property offences considered in law as less serious than burglary or robbery. 'Sara' is unusual, however, in that she has no involvement with drugs: one inmate in three now comes to Holloway accused of drugs-related offences, the fastest growing category in crimes committed in the United Kingdom by females.
The outline of 'Sara's' life made up of elements such as broken family, childhood abuse, poor education and, above all, poverty that may seem to explain, if not to justify, her actions appear unfailingly in the lives of most inmates in Holloway. "Psychological situations which may lead to crime and antisocial actions are deeply associated with sociological, cultural and historical conditions", explain forensic psychotherapists Welldon and van Velsen (1997:4). "Many offences have roots which go back into the structure of society and/or the earlier experiences of the mentally disordered offender. There is always a complex interaction between personality and environment". Yet, identical elements - poverty and the deprivation, neglect and abuse that may be concomitant - also mark the lives of countless others who manage to remain on the right side of the law or, at the very least, not to be found out on the wrong. "Why are individual differences so great?" Welldon and van Velsen ask rhetorically. "why do some survive environments better than others?" (1997:4).
Thus the story of what moves 'Sara' from Harrods to Holloway is both representative, delineating elements from the culture of poverty common to many others, and unique, as all lives are unique, taking a strand here and a strand there to weave the psychopathological fabric of a cluster of excessive behaviours.
'Sara' comes from the Midlands, the third child amongst five born to a family of recently arrived immigrants front outside Europe. Seemingly without the network of supportive relatives and contacts in Britain that members of some immigrant communities can count on, the father struggled to provide for the family whilst the mother held a traditional stay-at-home role. Possibly because of the family's straitened financial circumstances, 'Sara' – the only girl -- was taken at age 4 to the family's country of origin and left by the father with his parents. She received no explanation for what she experienced as abandonment. "Every day I would say: "When are my parents coining to get me?" and (toy grandmother) would always tell me: "Tomorrow, tomorrow". But they didn't come "tomorrow". They didn't come until I was 8."
By then 'Sara' had suffered repeated sexual abuse by young male relatives who gave her sweets in exchange for silence. Reunited with her birth family back in Britain, she disclosed the abuse to her mother and was not believed. Coming to view the abuse as her own fault, she became withdrawn and tearful. School seemed difficult, with poor marks and few friends. With growing frequency, she consumed large amounts of food - especially sweets and chocolates stolen from shops. Weight gain inevitably followed. Chided by various members of her now-broken family, she followed each episode of overeating by quantities of laxatives.
Surprisingly good results in 'Sara's' school-leaving examinations seemed to mark the start of a newly positive period. Leaving the Midlands and her family conflicts behind, she came up to London where she got a job, began a business studies course and met her first -- and only -- boy friend. But, in a seemingly natural and uncomplicated progression from stealing sweets as a child, shoplifting came to provide her with otherwise unaffordable clothing and treats.
A career in modelling to capitalise on unusual height and lovely face evaded her grasp: 'Sara' failed to keep down her weight. As her dreams of modelling faded, bouts of overeating followed by laxatives and vomiting slowly spiralled out of control. The binge-purge syndrome spilled into the workplace. She lost two jobs in rapid succession and went on the dole, dropping her course and being dropped in turn by her boy friend. Regular shoplifting expeditions sometimes ended in detection, with each successive arrest followed by a caution until at last she received a custodial sentence.
'Sara' accepts her time in Holloway rather philosophically, noting that at least the prison environment prevents her from overeating and taking laxatives. However, contact with other shoplifters makes her sense for the first time that what may underlie her shoplifting somehow differs from the 'professional' norm. "When I walk out with something, I feel really clever. But half the time I take stuff I don't want and I just give it away. I see other girls here that have taken twice as much stuff as me, and they've sold it all on and made thousands of pounds. I feel really stupid. I do this just for fun a, Well, not fun, it's not fun anymore. I don't know why I do it, really. It's just that nothing is ever enough. Not food, not clothes, nothing. Nothing is ever enough".
Welldon, E. and van Velsen, C. (1997) A Practical Guide to Forsensic Psychotherapy. London and Bristol, Pennsylvania: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Serious Shopping: Essays In Psychotherapy and Consumerism, edited by Dr Adrienne Baker, will be published in February by Free Association Books (200 pages, 40 hardback 15.95 paperback). Dr Baker ruins a psychotherapy group for compulsive shoppers at Regent's College Consultation Centre.