Money as Emotional Currency

Anca Carrington is a psychotherapist who trained at the Tavistock Centre in London, after a career as an economist, both in academia and the civil service. She now works in the NHS and in private practice, and also makes time to paint and draw.

'This collection has the merit of incorporating critiques of conventional economic wisdom, illustrations from literary fiction, and Freudian and Lacanian analyses. The width and depth of analysis is impressive. There are comprehensive linkages to childhood and individual development but we are also given substantial application to the wider world of financial markets. This is particularly welcome given the fragmentary treatment in general writings of the causes of the recent financial crisis. This should provide a valuable resource for practitioners, scholars in the field, and the generally interested for many years to come.'- Samuel Cameron, Professor of Economics, University of Bradford'Anca Carrington has pulled together a splendid team of contributors. Read this book if you want to understand the emotions money arouses - and how they impact on the way we spend it, hoard it, and make mistakes with it, on an individual and a global scale.'- John Maloney, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Exeter'No region of life today can be insulated from the desires, anxieties, and fantasies provoked by money. And yet there are few areas in which psychoanalytic discussion and ideas are more strikingly underdeveloped. With its lucid, theoretically expansive, and imaginative explorations of money through the lenses of Freud, object relations theory, Lacan, and even Borges, Anca Carrington's fine collection proves a valuable antidote to this gap in our literature.'- Josh Cohen, psychoanalyst (BPAS) and Professor Modern Literary Theory, Goldsmiths University of London'In times of austerity, we finally have a book that explains the emotional underside of money. This fascinating collection of essays explains both individual and collective fantasies about money. The analysis presented in this book should be essential reading to anyone who wants to understand why money can be both anxiety-provoking and exhilarating, plus a damaging element in one's personal life. For anyone working in financial services, this book should be required reading. Maybe a change in the way we are going might happen when people in finance understand the emotional underpinnings of their business.'- Renata Salecl, senior researcher at the Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia; professor at Birkbeck College, University of London

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS PREFACE INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE Emotional functions of money - Anca CarringtonCHAPTER TWO Freud's papers on money - Anca Carrington Freud (1908a): Character and anal erotism Freud (1917): On transformations of instinct as exemplified in anal erotismCHAPTER THREE Money and childhood phantasies - James Rose and Anca CarringtonCHAPTER FOUR Phantasy in the world economy - Anca Carrington Overview and introduction by David Tuckett 55 Tuckett, D., & Taffler, R. (2008): Phantastic objects and the financial market's sense of reality: a psychoanalytic contribution to the understandingof stock market instabilityCHAPTER FIVE Love, money, and identity - Anca Carrington Borges (1949): The Zahir CHAPTER SIX Money and desire: a Lacanian perspective - Anca Carrington Arnaud (2003): Money as signifier: A Lacanian insight into the monetary orderINDEX