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More than a hundred years ago, Freud (1908) listed parsimony among the major traits of obsessional personality and traced its origin to the pleasure felt by the anal phase child in retaining feces. Invoking illustrations from mythology, fairy tales, language, and dreams, Freud declared that money and feces were equated in the unconscious. This proposal was supported by his early pupils (Ferenczi, 1914/1916; Jones, 1918/1950; Fenichel, 1938) and the feces-money equation became an established psychoanalytic dictum. However, as psychoanalytic theory shifted from its instinctual foundations to object relational and self-psychological approaches, additional views regarding money began to appear. According to Klein (1975a, 1975b), greed originated in oral frustration and sought to angrily devour the withholding breast. Money came to symbolize this elusive source of security later in life. Children's fears of poverty betrayed the expectation of punishment for hostile, hungry phantasies towards the mother and the adult melancholic's dread of becoming destitute was a replication of this very dynamic. Extension of these ideas was discernible in Kernberg's (1976, 1984) portrayal of narcissistic personality that included the fervor with which some of these individuals pursue wealth. It is as if having money would make them omnipotent and dissolve all risks attendant upon attachment and dependence.
The self-psychological perspective on money (Krueger, 1986a) emphasized the exhibitionistic aspect of wanting to be wealthy. Showing off the colorful accoutrements of affluence provided a way to seek affirmation and applause from others. This helped maintain a positive self-image. It also provided a sense of vitality and coherence to an otherwise fragile self. Yet more psychological meanings of the interest in acquiring large sums of money were discerned over time (Blanton, 1976; Kaufman, 1976; Fuqua, 1986). These pertained to phallic competitiveness with one's rivals and sadistic wish