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Freud's statement (1913) that “money questions will be treated by cultured people in the same manner as sexual matters, with the same inconsistency, prudishness, and hypocrisy” is not yet outdated. As Krueger (1986) says, “Money may be the last emotional taboo in our society.”
Fenichel (1938) enlarged on Freud's linkage of money with feces by declaring that money can symbolize anything one can give or take: milk, breast, baby, sperm, penis, protection, gift, power, anger, or degradation. He viewed money as a source of narcissistic supply originating in an instinctual need for food and for omnipotence.
In our culture, money is also a symbol of worth, competence, freedom, prestige, masculinity, control, and security, all of which can become areas of conflict. Money issues may symbolize internal conflicts over dependency, responsibility, exploitation, and pride.
Money is endowed by each of us with multiple meanings. It may symbolize self-esteem and regard for others, power and omnipotence, innocence and worldliness, fear and security, caring and disdain, purity and dirt, acceptance and rejection—any individual meaning. Its emotional connotations stem from family values, cultural background, early experiences, and symbolic needs. Unconscious conflicts can give rise to extravagance, hoarding, miserliness, or success phobia. It is indeed paradoxical that guilt can be produced by both money and the lack thereof.
Money is one of the richest fields in which to sow seeds of marital