"The confessions of a completist"

A completist is a person with an obsessive interest in a specific subject who strives to collect, create, or experience everything connected to it. The term is most commonly used in reference to hobbies like book collecting, music, stamps, trading cards and coins. It sounds like a condition and it probably is, read more about the psychology of collecting here (opens in a new window). The psychosocial consequences of being a completist could be severe or mild. You could be a full completist (collecting every version of "Dark Side of the Moon", including the Chilean version). You will go through fire and water to succeed. You could be a partial completist (for example, collecting albums with the original line up). You will spend time, energy and money to succeed. When you tell people that you collect cds most people think that any copy will do. Oh, no. Discogs provides a register of all versions of a release. I'm picky and stubborn. I strive to collect from the same series. For example, I did considerable amount of research before I rebought Black Sabbath's first six albums on cd. I was looking for raw, yet dynamic sound. The choice fell on the Castle Communications releases from the 1980s. Obsession is a good quality for a completist. However, obsession requires stamina. I have got 36 of 40 Discogs-listed Devil's Ruin Records albums. The remaining four albums were most likely never manufactured and distributed. It took a lot of work to come to this conclusion. At least, I'm not looking for something that isn't there. You might think that you would feel fulfilled when you finally find the last missing album. The concept "completist emptiness" describes the paradox of feeling hollow despite the fact that your collection is now complete. It represents the psychological void that appears when the drive for a complete collection replaces actual fulfillment, resulting in a hollow "what now?" feeling. And void needs to be filled. A true completist quickly redirects his interest. The moral of the story is that worldly things will not make you complete. But people will.