Promotional Information

How ownership came to control us - and what we can do about it.

About the Author

Bruce Hood is a professor of Developmental Psychology in Society at the University of Bristol and the author of SuperSense, The Self Illusion and The Domesticated Brain. He is an elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the British Psychology Society and the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

Reviews

Beautifully written and brilliantly argued, Possessed is one of the few things you really need to own.
*Dan Gilbert*

Bruce Hood convincingly shows that we are possessed with possessions, but his book is one possession you have to have, especially now. Engagingly written, Possessed brings psychological science to bear on understanding how to exorcise this demon.
*Robert Plomin, author of 'Blueprint: How DNA makes us who we are'*

Science writing at its best: it's funny, smart, and on an fascinating topic.
*Twitter*

Ownership is a surprisingly nuanced and wonderfully colorful topic, and no one is better poised to tell its story than psychologist and author Bruce Hood. The book he's written is a page-turner that puts our intuitions under the spotlight at every turn.
*David Eagleman, bestselling author of 'The Brain' and 'Incognito'*

Bruce Hood's excellent new book upends the concept of possession and ownership . . . Possessed combines philosophy with rigorous experimental research to examine the reasons why we want to own so much more than we need. Hood's writing is crisp and he covers an impressive range for such a slim volume. For practical strategies to declutter, read Marie Kondo. For those interested in the psychology and philosophy of materialism, this rich and engaging book will spark hours of joy.
*The British Psychological Society blog*