Money and Mind

Abstract

Our instruction to our contributors was to examine some particular aspect of the money-mind relationship that appealed to them. As we reviewed the papers, we realized that they very naturally fit into two separate sections. The first we have chosen to call "Money and Life." Here the importance of money to the psyche is traced from childhood to old age, with consideration given to certain nodal points along this progression. For the most part, these papers do not treat of severe psychopathology but show how money is understood and used as people develop, mature, age and die. However, at times, money has truly pathological significance and the substance itself comes to have an exaggerated meaning to people. Here, its value exceeds anything that might be considered part of normal development and usage, although such distinctions remain always hard to define. And the second section focusses on "Money in Therapy," how money appears and re-appears during treatment, and how it influences what goes on in the consultation room on both sides of the desk. This section also touches on money in the history of psychoanalysis and on the significance of changing patterns of payment on psychotherapeutic practice and technique. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)