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Ah, if only there could be a last taboo. Then, when it was exposed, inner peace would be upon us. But whether money, or sex, or death, or tenderness, or incest, or parricide, or what you will, no taboo can be the last, the final taboo. A view of the world that speaks of a “last taboo” and a theory that posits such a view negate much of what we have learned in three-quarters of a century of analytic experience.
To speak of a last taboo is to suggest a human mentality free from conflict, one with discords neither among inner motivations nor consequent to clashes between generations.
The role of money in human psychology, its symbolic power, its actualized impact, its handling within analysis and therapy—these are crucial subjects, and they merit serious study and lengthy discourse. The editor has cast his net broadly in an effort to cover a vast range of subjects touched by the import of money. But is the title like the cleavage on the cover of a paperback, a sales-seeking device of a publisher eager to increase his market? Does it reflect a pop psychology that cuts into a tangled subject, but not too incisively, not too rigorously?
There is insufficient consistency in this collection of papers to permit a single answer. Despite the presence of a few outstanding papers, the title seems to reflect the tenor of several of the papers. Too many offer descriptive dynamics in lieu of exposing deeper meanings. These proclaim conclusions to theoretical controversies while overlooking the weakness of their own evidence; such tendentious papers fail to credit opponents and fail to do justice to the clinical truth of multiple determination. Worthwhile contributions are present, but weakness of editorial standards leaves the reader to do much of the task of selection.
For convenience, the 24 papers are divided into three categories: theoretical and symbolic meanings of money, money in the therapist-patient relationship, and payment structures and management issues.
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