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Money is a central motivation for many in our society. It is a measurement of worth, value, power, or freedom. Yet, there exists a curious paradox. Freud (1913) himself wrote that “Money questions will be treated by cultured people in the same manner as sexual matters, with the same inconsistency, prudishness, and hypocrisy” (p. 131). More than 70 years later, many have learned to talk more easily about sex, but may remain seclusive, embarrassed, or conflicted about discussing money. Money may be society's last emotional taboo. A patient in psychoanalysis expressed it very clearly, “You know, Krueger, it's a lot easier for me to talk about dead people and bad dreams than it is to talk about my feelings about handing over this money to you each month.”
Americans have been raised in a culture with informal ethical and social constraints on the candid discussion of money, fees, and personal income. Additionally, individual meanings and attributions converge with the issue of money and further complicate our money-associated behaviors.
For most therapists, education and training have dealt with a gamut of theoretical and therapeutic issues. For some of us, personal therapy or analysis has dealt with omitted or disregarded parts of the self, revealing and resolving powerfully influential developmental aspects. Yet, even in these processes of profound personal understanding, issues involving the real and symbolic meanings of money are sometimes neglected. Even in coming to know ourselves and our personal myths, we may have omitted consideration of the personal multidetermined meanings of money and how it affects our conscious and unconscious assumptions, including the seeming taboo against frank discussion about it.