Ownership is on most people's lips these days, or at least the lack of ownership. Everywhere people seem to be fighting over what is theirs. They want to take back their property, their lands, their liberty, their bodies, their identity, and their right to do what they want. These are all things people can own. These demands are quite remarkable when you consider that ownership is not an observable property but rather an abstract concept. And yet this abstract concept controls just about everything we do, and can do. What we can call ours, what we can do, where we can go, and who we are is all determined by ownership, but we rarely stop to consider how it rules our lives. Ownership even explains the anger and political turmoil that is currently sweeping over Western democracies. People feel they have had something taken away, something they used to own in the past and want back.

Possessed is the first accessible book to consider the psychological origins and future of ownership in a rapidly changing world. It reveals how we are compelled to accumulate possessions in a relentless drive to seek status and approval by signaling our values to others by what we own. It traces the history of ownership but looks to the future as our drive to own will need to adapt to environmental and technological change.