Psychology of Luxury

The way analysts talk, behave, and feel about money is rife with anxiety, which is a superficial manifestation of the deep psychocultural contradiction between money and love that cannot be thought, wanted, or desired. For the success of the clinical project, this contradiction can and must find a temporary, reparative solution in the paradox between love and hate. The question of money is considered in the spirit of the Marxist-Freudian tradition, in a postmodern perspective. This is not only psychoanalysis, but also social theory, anthropology, and, less importantly, feminist theory. The paper examines the unconscious and emotional resonance of money and its cultural implications; the clinical and theoretical vicissitudes of money in the context of cultural symbolism and economic change, as well as the class position of psychoanalysis and the psychology of class itself; and the relational meaning of money in transference and countertransference. Psychoanalytically, Freud's periodic dyspepsia in his patients could be seen as a symptom of what has been termed a mental disorder, the "money neurosis" suffered by the bourgeoisie in Vienna and other European cities in the late nineteenth century (Warner, 1991). From a political point of view, this could be called "classicism" or class prejudice. However, if we combine psychoanalysis and politics, we will see in Freud's heart a social disease called " alienation." By alienation, I don't mean so much alienation or dissatisfaction as the cause these feelings. When does love turn to hate? In psychoanalytic contact, as in the psyche, as indeed in our culture, the contradiction between money and love threatens to turn love into its apparent opposite; hatred, in turn, threatens to completely destroy kinship; and analysts, like infants, feel a paralysis of fear. The modern world is a glossy digest: expensive cars, luxury apartments, jewelry and branded clothing. The consumer society is firmly in its embrace. Nietzsche said that buying a luxury item gives "the pleasure of being aware of your own otherness" - that is, the joy of feeling that you are not like everyone else. This is not only a different level of life, but also a sense of such a difference from others.