My Mother, My Father, My Money

Money and its loaded issues.

Simon Feuerman is a psychotherapist and teaches at Kean University in New Jersey. See full bio

May 6, 2009

Mary Has No Money Part II

Mary, a university professor of history, 40 and beautiful, perched on the very edge of youth, finds herself at the end of her $200K equity line and without money. Feeling like both a failure and a fool she tries to figure out how this has come to pass. In her search, Mary is directed by a friend to consider the ways in which she avoids reality. Read More

May 4, 2009

Mary Has No Money

On May 25th, 2007 Mary looked in the mirror. She was in the last bloom of her good looks. It was Indian summer. Lodged somewhere deep in those hair follicles and joints, there was the knowledge that the beautiful auburn hair would soon go gray and her skin would get looser as her mother's had before her. Read More

April 12, 2009

Thank You Usually Means Something Else

I knew a man who was a little bit off. His name was Jack. He was big, tall and broad, a bear of a man, handsome, in a 1940s-50s sort of way - like he stepped off a set of Guys n' Dolls. He was from Brownsville, Brooklyn and he had a crew cut and a bearing that suggested 1 part tough-guy, 2 parts Goofus and 3 parts Gallant. Read More

March 20, 2009

Give Greed A Chance (But blind it first)*

These days there is a lot of grumbling about greed. It is not only being blamed for the Wall Street and Banking collapse, but also for the entire world-wide economic crisis. Read More

March 2, 2009

The Rhythm Method*

Last week's poll shows broad support for President Barack Obama: a whopping 80% are optimistic about the next 4 years with the President despite the fact that many of those very same people are pessimistic about their own lives.

How do we understand that the very same people gloomy on the economy are simultaneously pleased with the President's leadership?
Read More

February 17, 2009

Singers and Whiners*

These days a lot of people are asking for help. Big corporations, small companies, rich people, poor folks - many, many will ask for some kind of help and it will probably have something to do with money. Read More

February 2, 2009

What Does Credit Card Debt Have to Do With My Mother?*

Sally, a woman in her 40s had built up enormous credit card debt - in the tens of thousands.

Sally had brought this problem to group therapy or more accurately group psychoanalysis - an experience she had recently begun. The group members suggested that this debt was because of her problems with her mother.

January 26, 2009

Why We (Continue to) Pay Lavishly

The big news of late is that a few marquis CEOS of the country's major banks and corporations have forgone all or part of their bonuses and pay packages. Robert Rubin of Citigroup and Kenneth Lewis of Bank of America have admirably declined to take bonus compensation this past year. The CEO of the construction equipment giant, Caterpillar and others have also followed suit. Read More

Behavioral Economics Basics

Why do we often think we know what we want, only to be disappointed with our purchases and choices? Behavioral economics studies just how irrational we humans can be.

Go to the Behavioral Economics Basics page for more on Behavioral Economics including:

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