Money and Countertransference

Abstract

I am going to make some observations and ask some questions about what money means, personally, to the psychoanalyst or psychotherapist. The material I draw upon comes from over thirty years of psychoanalytic practice during which I have worked with patients who are physicians, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts (both medical and non-medical) and with a significant number of candidates in psychoanalytic training. I have also had numerous discussions with colleagues and friends within the profession; mostly informal, anecdotal conversations about fees, income, referrals and the psychoanalytic “business” in general. Most analysts have such informal discussions and yet this subject is rarely included in psychoanalytic training curricula or, for that matter, in the psychoanalytic literature.