Some of the ideas of psychoanalysis sound as defiantly radical today as they did when they were first expressed. The view of modern psychoanalysis on such a familiar thing as money, explains psychoanalyst Andrei Rossokhin.
Psychologies: In the inner world of a person, money replaces his feelings and experiences. How does this happen?
Andrey Rossokhin: Already from adolescence, the main participants in internal conflicts are not significant people, but their images, often very different from the original. Feelings in relation to a person are transferred to his image and then to money as an object of substitution. Imagine a boy whose parents are fighting over money. Not receiving love, he blames his father, because of which his mother is angry; wants to replace his father and make his mother happy without him: son, mother and money. The image of money is gradually replacing the image of the father. A grown son, creating his family, will try to buy the tenderness of a woman, he will do everything to earn a lot, and he will see that this does not bring love and warmth. Money as a way to satisfy the thirst of a child’s soul eventually loses its meaning, but at the same time, life itself loses its meaning for such a person.
«Where there is dirt, there is money»; «Do you have a wad of money in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?» Why do we say so?
A. R .: These expressions confirm the symbolic connection between money and our sexuality. Often, men unconsciously compensate for the lack of confidence in their male solvency, “big penis”, with solid capital. For women, money can also act as an attribute of male power. Sexual coloration of money allows us to feel the duality of our attitude towards them. Many people are well aware of not only the strong excitement from contact with large amounts of money, but also their rejection, the feeling of dirt.
Are there internal conflicts that can be resolved with money?
A. R .: Self-doubt, children’s inferiority complex, at first glance, are successfully overcome with the help of large capital. Money, losing its sexual background, becomes a symbol of power. Psychoanalysis distinguishes between the concepts of «penis» and «phallus». The first designates the male sexual organ in its bodily reality, and the second has a symbolic meaning. The erect phallus symbolizes absolute power. Money as a means of substitution gives the illusion of such power. In modern life, a credit card can also take on a phallic meaning — you can’t carry a treasure chest with you, but you can have a platinum card. Sometimes, being in the captivity of such a phallic fantasy, a person seems to merge with his credit card, dreams that everyone knows him, he can do everything — and so gradually loses his human «I». But «phallic» money does not help to solve internal problems, they enslave the soul even more.
How difficult is it to break free from such power of money?
A. R .: We are freed from it when we begin to solve our inner problems. Money, which served for sexual compensation, self-assertion and / or the achievement of power, becomes a means of interaction with other people and the world — as it should be. And our children, brought up in such an emotional way, are unlikely to attach excessive meaning to this human invention.