Money and Sexuality

Bailey makes a perceptive comment at one point, drawing on the experience of a Jesuit psychologist of his acquaintance. This psychologist found that he could fairly quickly get his patients to talk openly about their sexual histories and sins, but that when he began to ask them about their finances, a wall was immediately thrown up. Bailey says, “The conclusion that my friend and other therapists have come to is that an individual’s money and how he or she spends it is embedded more deeply in the psyche of a person than is sexuality. Personal sexuality, it seems, can be discussed more easily than personal finance.”