ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the meaning of money generally and specifically in therapy, with a classification in mind. Money is great inventions of civilization, comparable with the discovery of written language, fire or the wheel. Exchange enables the diversity of the human race to be put to good use. People pay offers the greater autonomy and an ability to feel more deeply: rock climbing, the painful acquisition of musical skills, or psychotherapy. Money belongs to the oedipal phase and the advent of the father in the child's mind. The pre-pecuniary world is maternal, pre-Oedipal. The paradox of money is the reality, but symbolizes the fantasy. The establishment of the National Health Service, 'free at the point of entry' in Britain, was a socialist attempt to remove money from one central arena of public life. The 'good therapist' is someone who spent a lot of money on training and the right institutes.