Money Talks

Sometimes referred to as “the last taboo,” money has remained something of a secret within psychoanalysis. Ironically, while it is an ingredient in almost every encounter between analyst and patient, the analyst’s personal feelings about money are rarely discussed openly or in any great depth. So what is it about money that relegates it to the background, both on the couch and off? In Money Talks, Brenda Berger, Stephanie Newman, and their excellent cast of contributors address this and other questions surrounding the tender topic of money, how we talk about it, and how it talks to us. Its multiple meanings are explored in the contexts of patients and analysts and the ways in which they relate, in the training and practice of the analysts themselves, as well as the psychological and cultural consequences of having too much or too little in both flush and tight economic times. Throughout, a clinical sensibility is brought to bear on money’s softly spoken place in therapy and life. Money Talks paves the way for an open discourse into the psychology of money and its pervasive influence on the psyche of both patient and analyst.