Summary of Claudia Kalb's Andy Warhol was a Hoarder offers 12 short biographies of famous individuals, focusing on their individual struggles with mental illness. The biographies are used to help illustrate and provide information about different mental disorders, such as OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) and gambling addiction. In turn, the discussion of mental illness provides insight into the personalities of notable historical individuals, including Abraham Lincoln, George Gershwin, and Marilyn Monroe.

Mental illness has had a complicated and uncertain effect on the lives of the famous. However, mental illness in historical figures is difficult to diagnose. This is in part because historical records are imperfect. But it is also because the same symptoms can point to a variety of illnesses...