ABSTRACT

The small-scale exchanges of the infant and young child lead the way towards the exchange economy in which the adult lives. This chapter concentrates on the external effects of the child's struggle for control of ingestion and excretion. It shows how each person reveals an attitude to holding on or letting go, getting and spending and how that relates to his place in society and the presenting problem that he might bring to therapy. In relation to money and its impact on the individual, social structures are important in reinforcing the guilt that the individual will construct for himself. The fear of theft may also be rooted in the fear of other losses which might differ for each person but might also have some common features. Money or the lack of it determines position in society as well as the comfort or ease of the life lived there.