ABSTRACT
Psychoanalytic theorists have faced some of the primary and most difficult questions about the nature of human beings. Therapists deal with debt and with the guilt that arises from a sense of having taken something from someone. Debt leads to a sense of impotence and a restriction of power which is likely to lead to depression. The concept of debt is important in practical and conscious terms in most people's lives but it is also apparent through analysis of the unconscious processes. Repaying debt is a theme in analytic work. Since dealings with money echo the need to trust and to pay debts, the superego is crucial. Guilt for possessing and withholding money is embedded in the rituals that we find in rites of passage throughout the world. The love of money is one of the motives for the primary mythical crime in which brothers unite to kill the father and take his place, his power and his possessions.
