Money Talks：in Therapy, Society and Life

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.

Brenda Berger, Ph.D., is Clinical Assistant Professor of Medical Psychology in Psychiatry at Columbia University and on the faculty at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, where she serves as Senior Associate Director for Psychology and Director of the Psychology Externship training program. The author of the Parent Development Interview as well as several articles, she received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and the Lionel Ovesey Award of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research for developing a psychodynamic teaching program. Dr. Berger practices in New York City and Larchmont, NY.

Stephanie Newman, Ph.D., is a faculty member of the Institute for Psychoanalytic Education affiliated with the New York University School of Medicine. She has presented numerous times on diverse topics in psychoanalysis at the Scientific Meetings of the American Psychoanalytic Association, as well as the American Psychological Association and APA Division 39 (Psychoanalysis). A regular contributor to the online edition of Psychology Today, she maintains a private psychoanalytic practice in New York City.