ABSTRACT
The attitude of the neurotic to the possession of money has been the subject of much study in psychoanalytic literature. Both Freud and other analysts who have followed him in directing their interest to ‘anal’ character-traits have dealt with neurotic avarice and the anxious retention of money from the point of view of unconscious motives; but the opposite behaviour of many neurotics, the excessive spending of money, has not received the same attention, although the psycho-analyst frequently comes across it. This tendency appears suddenly in many neurotics, like a kind of attack, and stands in conspicuous contrast to their usual parsimony.
