Money Disorders and the Illusion of Happiness

by Richard Boyd, Body Mind Psychotherapist and Organisational Consultant, Perth, Western Australia

Copyright 2010

“Money, Money, Money, must be funny, in a rich man’s world!!”, or so the rock and roll song goes. The pursuit of money is increasingly linked in today’s society with the pursuit of happiness. We have books on money, newspaper columns on money, TV shows on money, and careers built on finding it, building it up, safeguarding it, accounting for it, and spending it. Money indeed does seem to make the world go around.

In our society it is common upon introduction for people to ask what do you do?  Psychological studies have shown that this is because we all tend to compare and measure ourselves against others, as part of a social hierarchy and threat/challenge posture (Cozolino:2010). There is also an underlying aspect of this where we may assume an income or lifestyle outcome on behalf of that person in the same way and for the same reason(Cozolino:2010).

Psychologists are now finding that the obsession with money, and its link to the concept of self, or self-image, is becoming increasingly distorted and destructive. In my coaching and consulting work within organisations I am finding an emerging trend of executives and employees with financial stress, and in my engagements with organisations I am encountering increasing incidents of workplace theft, or employees who have lost marriages or have faced criminal charges outside the workplace for situations relating to what I call “money disorders”.

In the personality styles documented over the years by psychologists, certain money styles have been noted for some personalities. Renowned bodymind psychotherapist Alexander Lowen(1976), found that the rigid-perfectionistic personality had an essentially unhealthy or low self-esteem or self-image. One way they compensate for this is by externalising their self-esteem into the gathering and attainment of materialistic goods, environments, experiences and symbols such as wealth, degrees and achievements(Lowen:1976).

As such these people are very conscious of, and sensitive to being bettered, beaten or shamed around such props to their low self-esteem. They tend to covet such materialistic ideals and objects, including money, and can become obsessive in this regard as a form of emotional sickness(Lowen:1976). They can get overly wounded and withdraw, and in extreme examples where they get publicly exposed or they perceive shame there are well known examples of such successful persons suiciding.

In a well known example during the recent Global Financial Crisis, the worlds 44^th richest man, Adolf Merckle, dropped down the rich list to number 94. For 99% of the population this position would still see themself as a vastly wealthy person with opportunities, achievements and resources beyond what all of us will not see in this life. In his world the perceived loss of face and loss of control was unbearable and he threw himself under a train in his own perceived sense of failure and shame(Halligan:2010).

In the same way Lowen also noted that in our modern society we were becoming increasingly Narcissistic and driven by the need for power, image and status(Lowen:1986). Lowen saw the link between the pursuit of power and the pursuit of money as money is increasingly becoming the currency of power(Lowen:1986). He identified the Narcissistic personality type as a personification of this approach to life.

A recent example of narcissistic excess was the couple Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt. This reality TV celebrity couple blew their $10 million fortune on renting a $35,000 a month Malibu home, $3 million on Heidi’s failed music career, six cars, private jets, and the blonde’s cosmetic surgery(PerthNow:2010). They also have a $2 million tax bill they are unable to pay. They now live penniless with Spencer Pratts parents, and Heidi is considering posing for Playboy magazine or releasing adult sex tapes to earn an income now(PerthNow:2010). The pair commented they never worried about the business part of their life, only the image and the famous part.

Their story encapsulates the unreality lived by many Narcissistic personalities who authors such as Meiers(2009) and Lewi-Martinez(2008) notes, have endless demands, an unreal sense of entitlement to the best things in life, but a detachment from the responsibility to earn such entitlements. Money disorders or money crisis issues often dog Narcissistic personalities whose grandiosity often exceeds their actuality in life(Lasch:1988).

Alexander Lowen also found that a Spendthrift style character existed who often was needy, under resourced within themself, and who often had a compulsive and addictive nature. They struggled to save money, start and finish jobs and projects, and collapsed into depression and illness when stressed. Spending was a form of self-soothing to these types of personalities(Lowen:1976).

Our relationship to money has many faces, and some people such as Greg Smith(2002) have written about money personalities and the psychology of money. These money personality types include The Careful, The Savvy, Hoarders and Accumulators,  others are Investors or Maximisers, and yet others are Spenders who cannot retain money but feel compulsive and have to spend it.

The recent advances in Neuroscience have started to uncover and reveal chemical and emotional drivers behind money obsessions that create neural pathway changes in the brain, and result in subsequent personality traits. It is being shown now that some people have brains “wired” to money that mimic the wiring of the brain of a drug addict(Carter:2003). Others are showing evidence of a cross-wiring or trauma that reveals an original impulse for say food, gets corrupted and converted into a subsequent impulse for money(Cozolino:2010).

Psychologists note that we have an emotional rather than rational relationship to money. The old original Adam Smith inspired economic notion is of money as the a tool of exchange that makes economic life more efficient as it provides comparative values to disparate resources, services and objects. Unfortunately as money is also tied to our basic survival needs as outlined by Abraham Maslow, we become emotionally attached to money from our “fight or flight” emotional limbic brain.

Researchers such as Daniel Ariely of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has concluded that two distinct sets of behavioural needs and rules run us all(Buchanan:2009). The first of these are social norms/needs which are “warm and fuzzy” and designed to foster long-term relationships, trust and co-operation(Buchanan:2009). Neuroscience researchers such as Bernie Siegel(2009) have found these emotional states have much to do with the Parasympathetic or “relaxed and peaceful” state of the Autonomic Nervous System(ANS), which is mediated by the emotional limbic brain in us all.

Ariely(Buchanan:2009) also notes a second set of behavioural norms/needs which are competitive, based around money, status, and which encourage individuals to put their own interests first. Neuroscience researchers such as Bernie Siegel(2009) have found these emotional states have much to do with the Sympathetic or “fight or flight” state of the Autonomic Nervous System(ANS), which is mediated by the emotional limbic brain in us all.

The problem is according to Neuroscientists such as Pat Ogden(2006), Louis Cozolino(2010), and others, is that our ANS can only be in one of these states at any one time. It is an either/or choice. Abraham Maslow correctly predicted that survival needs(Sympathetic states) always overrode higher actualisation needs(Parasympathetic states) when faced with a choice. Neuroscience tells us the same thing and explains why due to the action of this old part of our brains.

Kathleen Vohs(Buchanan:2009) of the Department of Marketing in the University of Minnesota describes how research shows that that people will put in more effort to attain survival related needs and that money makes people feel self sufficient as well as comfortably separate. Research shows that if we keep these 2 sets of needs apart and satisfy them independent on the other then life often works out.

Numerous psychological studies show that those who trade off the intrinsic needs such as building and maintaining personal relationships, and instead focus on the extrinsic needs of wealth, status, power and image, suffer low scores on mental health indicators(Buchanan:2009). Divorce statistics show that those who are motivated or focus primarily on money during their marriage find they often end up divorced(Cozolino:2010). The studies reinforce the diminishing return of money on happiness and satisfaction, especially once our survival and nurturance needs have been met.

Some people lose their balance in life in regards to their relationship to money and this then has a knock-on-effect to the quality of the social behaviours/needs group of norms. Various psychological studies(Cozolino:2010) have linked the pursuit of the market or survival norms at the expense of the social norms with:

• Perceived loss of control of life
• Increased anxiety and stress levels
• Onset of depression
• Reduced life expectancy
• Increased physical, mental and emotional linked illnesses
• Workaholism, alcoholism and other addictions
• Workplace theft and corporate crime
• Increased aggressiveness at work and home

The Western world has come through a credit binge cycle which has only dried up in the last 12-18 months for some. Economists have noted that in the 10 years leading up to the 2009 GFC many people became addicted to lifestyles fuelled by easy credit which were linked to rampant consumerism(Rajan:2009). Now that the years of an easy line of credit has finished, the consumer, like a drug addict, is going through withdrawal symptoms of the unavailability of their next “hit”.

Neuroscience researchers who have studied the brain processes of those with various types of addictions, note that there are emotional and chemical components to the addiction process. Even those who do not partake of a “substance” addiction can get addicted to their own adrenalin which gets excreted via the HPA process of the brain(Ogden:2006). This adrenalin effect is the “buzz” of the addictive experience and can hook a person in as much as heroin can.  Many “process” addictions such as workaholism, gambling, extreme sports, gym and triathlon junkies, are effectively addicted to their adrenalin and endorphin “payoffs”(Lea: 2008).

Money often plays a part of the addictive experience. The “rush” of gambling on a horse, the “buzz” of a couple of hours of retail spending, the “charge” of buying and selling shares or the riskier derivatives for a quick profit,  the “thrill” of A-list social events all have a way of creating this effect. The last 10 years or more have created a society of people with money linked addictions who are now in withdrawal mode, which traditional addiction specialists have shown, can create a desperate “survival” focussed individual(Rajun:2010).

Kathleen Vohs(2009) showed in a series of studies that the handling of both real and play money created positive effects to the mood of a person. Basically when money was taken away(GFC effect), people retracted from their social norms into insular and negative states where they would not give or be generous or as socially minded. When money was available and handled by the study participants, it reduced social anxiety, reduced physical pain, and had an insular effect on external shocks(Vohs:2009). Neuroscientists argue that the release of opiates and endorphins by the brain at the learned positive association we mostly have between money and happiness, partly accounts for this effect(Buchanan: 2009).

Increasingly what is being observed and suggested is that money is becoming not a survival need/ norm but has switched or jumped across to being a substitute social need/norm(Buchanan:2009). Put bluntly money is enabling people to get what they want even when socially they are despised, odd, eccentric or withdrawn(Vohs:2009). People from this place are able to manipulate the social system to give them what they want, regardless of whether they are liked(Buchanan:2009). This explains why there is an emerging in-balance in those no longer relying on social norms/needs but are instead increasingly focussing on extrinsic factors of power, wealth, status, image and consumerism(Vohs:2009). Money is becoming a surrogate friend at the expense of real social relationships(Buchanan:2009).

At the tail end of a decade of consumerism we have probably created a generation of money addicted adults(Buchanan:2009). Neuroscientists have long argued that the brain processes that create addiction do not need repeated stimulus or experience over long periods to create compulsive or addictive binds to that object, substance or process(Ogden:2006). A decade is more than long enough to wire people into a money addiction, and researchers such as Lea and Webley(2009) are noting how the personal money issues now arising post GFC have striking hallmarks of the compulsive and addictive aspects of an addicted personality.

Lea and Webley(2009) propose that money, like nicotine or cocaine, can activate the brains pleasure centres. Trauma researchers such as Pat Ogden(2006), Bessel Van De Kolk(2006), and .Cozolino(2010) have seen money based addictions and compulsions in their work, and note the opiate and endorphin based rewards these people get from indulging in such monetary pursuits.

However the very nature of any addiction is that over time instead of you controlling it, it starts to control and run you(Mellody:2000). Money addictions and compulsions are no different in this respect.

When the drug is available then typically the addict can indulge them and mask over or cover-up their addictions, and appear to function more or less normally(Mellody:2000). When the means for the drug becomes unavailable(e.g. GFC easy lines of credit or monetary loss), a crisis appears in the personality. There are physical and emotional withdrawal symptoms experienced by the addict deprived of their drug even when it is a “process” drug or addiction rather than a chemical one(Ogden:2006). The withdrawal effect can send the addict into “survival” mode where they will lie, cheat, steal and deceive in order to get their next hit of the drug, or to deny they have a problem(Mellody:2000).

It is now believed that large numbers of people in society today are effectively suffering some form of money addiction withdrawal symptoms and stress(Rajun:2010). This is a dangerous time for them, their families, loved one, and employers. It is common for the addict at this time to indulge in criminally, morally and ethically wrong actions(Mellody:2000). In terms of money disorders caused by addictions of this type, psychologists have started to note a range of behaviours linked to this emerging phenomena.

The key type of behaviours are summarised as:

1.     Financial Infidelity. This is the act of “cheating” on a spouse by spending and then lying about it. One aspect of addictions is the lying that the addict undertakes to deny to themselves and to others the extent of the problem. Those with spending addictions will tend to steal money from household budgets to do so, hide credit card statements, bank statements and receipts, attribute it to other bills, lie outright they have spent at all, and hide the purchased items.

The addict will have a post-euphoria moment where they come down from the “buzz” of the spending experience and realise they did not really need to spend the money on the 100^th pair of shoes or dress or car tool, or a collectable, or at the realisation of the money lost during gambling. Shame then kicks in and they conduct a cover-up at their realised acting out of a compulsion.

This can also occur in the organisational workplace. One of the stress symptoms I encounter in my work within organisations is the incident of the employer “cheating” on the company by misappropriating funds or resources in this way. There is a cover-up attempted that can go on for years if a system or process flaw or loophole is found that facilitates the effective cover-up.

2.     Guilt and Shame. The person suffers both in general from guilt and shame about themself, and also after yet another instance of compulsive spending or misuse of money( e.g. gambling). This in turn reduces their overall self-esteem and sets in place the basis for the next “acting out” of more spending or misusing money when the addict cannot tolerate these guilt and shame feelings anymore. This financial “acting out” is a self-medicating or self-soothing response to the persons felt shame, guilt and inner emptiness about themself and their life.

Some people develop a more generalised guilt and shame about their life circumstances to do with money. Those who have been born with inter-generational poverty or negative messages about money tend to have their own guilt and shame about being poor themself, or surprisingly about being rich.

The rich person who suffers guilt and anxiety about their wealth in the situation where they have “risen” above their family lineage financial profile and messages about money, is a more common problem than first thought. This is a common problem I work with in Coaching and Consulting with executives and employees now earning large sums in mining, engineering and financial services industries in Australia. “New money” wealth seems to attract this problem.

These persons struggle with wealth and often unconsciously sabotage their businesses and wealth in order to return to the loyalty of the “normal” place of poverty and being poor again unless helped to understand these hidden dynamics in their own life. I have helped professionals and executives turn this part of their lives around, and the impact it has on their organisations, by working through this set of dynamics.

3.     Workaholism. Some people with money disorders channel all their time and energy into work and money making activities in an obsessive or compulsive way. In this dynamic they tend to expand their money focus at the expense of their social norms/needs which evaporate and are ignored. People around them typically suffer as the now absent addict channels all time, attention and direction into work and money pursuits. These people often do not recognise the signals of deteriorating relationships, disgruntled or upset partners, children or family. They withdraw into a tunnel vision world of work.

These people often lose not just their life balance but proper self care as well. They often become sleep deprived, driven, anxious, and aggressive towards work colleagues, customers, and their loved ones at home. They may also have bad diets, and develop secondary addictions to smoking, caffeine or alcohol to help cope with their pressure cooker lives. They often end up with failed relationships, or develop physical, emotional or mental disorders or breakdowns over the longer term as a consequence.

This is probably the most common unrecognised problem I work with in Coaching and Consulting with executives and higher placed employees in organisations in Australia. These persons struggle with work-life balance and often have a myriad of emerging health, relationship and work related issues that are normally threatening to become out of control.

The executive is often living from a reactive place and has lost their “bigger picture” focus on their job role, their family and their life in general. They have become micro-managers, task oriented, and reactive to events and situations at work. I am always working with executives in my coaching practice to turn this part of their work-life around, and the impact it has on their overall lives, by working through this set of dynamics.

4.     Financial Enabling/Financial Incest. Some people have guilt and shame over their own financially wealthy positions in life as compared to their children and extended families. They may start to become “financial caretakers”. This money disorder is similar to the traditional co-dependent personality who props up a traditional “addict” personality with a traditional type of addiction. The financial version of this Enabler type personality feels compulsed to intervene and “give” by paying off debts, mortgages and service their dependents lifestyles. The dependent is a “receiver” who starts to become dependent on the giver, who now has a degree of control over the receiver.

The conscious “pay-off” for the Enabler or “giver” is the soothing of their own guilt or shame at having wealth as compared to the people they are financially propping up. The unconscious driver can be feeling more in control of themself by exerting a form of control over the receiver, and also the “stroking” or recognition they get in turn from the receiver.

This may seem all virtuous but what normally develops is resentment over time on behalf of the giver towards the receiver as they start to feel used and not properly appreciated.  The giver may then become ominous and manipulate the receiver via threats of withdrawing their support unless the receiver acts in a certain way or agrees to do or not do something else. The emerging manipulation and control of the receiver by the giver is the “Financial Incest” term used within the wider context of the “Financial Enabling” dynamic.

The receiver in turn starts to normalise the support they receive into their lifestyle and become dependent on it. The receiver from this place starts to have a demand that this charity continue and loses their graciousness towards the giver, and takes them for granted. The receiver is also “stuck” as they are not learning financial management skills or how to stand on their own two feet financially. In effect the giver is “feeding them a fish each day” rather than teaching them “how to fish for themself” and so enabling them to feed themself for the rest of their lives.

The Enabler is also not effectively managing their own life and affairs in the act of financially enabling others in this way. It is healthy and virtuous to be generous and perhaps to pay off some debt of a sibling or child, but the focus needs to be how to handle and manage money. In terms of the old proverb it is true that “gives them a fish and feed them for a day, but teach them to fish and feed them for life”.

This is a common problem I work with in Coaching and Consulting with executives in Australia. Many CEO’s are distracted by family wealth issues, and the demands and conflicts placed upon them by dependent siblings, spouses and children.

These persons often struggle with their guilt over having worked hard to accumulate and grow wealth via working hard, and often unconsciously end up being financial Enablers to various dependents. The usual outcome is pressure and crisis in the lives of the demanding dependents which creates distractions for the CEO who is trying to focus on important work and business matters. Once I help CEO’s set realistic expectations and good boundaries with these dependents, this type of intervention coaching often turns this part of their lives around.

5.     Serial Borrowing. Serial borrowing is a recent phenomena related to the permissive lending practices that arose in the late 1990’s, notes Professor Raghuram Rajan(2010). In his article, “Fault Line: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy”, Professor Raghuram Rajan argues that there is no political will to improve education to raise the standard of living for the masses. Instead politicians appeal to short term interests of constituents by promoting consumerism instead. He points to this short term distraction tactic of politicians as being behind much of the recent Global Financial Crisis. Instead of going down the hard long term road of trying to educate our populations and rid them of poverty through education and awareness, we made credit for houses, cars and gadgets easily available when they had no basis on which to be able to pay for this easy access to cheap credit.

As a consequence we collectively developed a permissive attitude to debt and to the idea of “buy now – pay later” based on easy credit and serial borrowing. As people normalised this way of relating to money then the concept of saving towards a targeted amount, and rewarding yourself with the purchase once you saved up the purchase price, became an old fashioned, uneducated way of living with money(Rajan:2010). We went on a binge of easy loan credit, got addicted and now the drug has been withdrawn argues Collett(2009).

At one stage in Australia, banks and credit unions were writing to customers and automatically raising their credit card limits, or offering new co-branded credit cards with airlines, store chains, and other third parties(Choice:2010). For some it proved irresistible and they chased and obtained numerous loans and credit cards(Rajun:2010). Lending institutions had little idea of a person’s overall exposure, and many people used a “Round Robin” strategy of using one credit card to pay off the other credit card monthly payment in a linked series of shuffled debt transfers to hide their mounting credit problems(Rajun:2010).

This has created a serial borrowing disorder in people who cannot see another way of managing their debt. They simply try to rob Peter to pay Paul, and keep one step ahead of the problem. The credit crunch has exposed all these troubling practices, but has left some people with massive financial problems, and debt/money addictions(Rajun:2010). These people were sold a lie and encouraged to “have it all”. Everyone got greedy, consumed more, and a few well educated and savvy professionals and organizations milked the system till it imploded.

The unsustainable nature of this course of action created temporary but illusory hopes with increased jobs and materialistic gadgets and objects for all, but the collapse has seen these taken away, and now sitting idle, or to be demolished as in the case of swathes of half finished Developer building estates in countries like Ireland(Halligan:2010).

Rajan(2010) argues that the end-result is virtually no-one won from this madness. Some countries are closer to bankruptcy than ever before, taxes are rising, social policy benefits and services are being slashed, all which affect more of the masses who are saddled with personal bankruptcy or lifetime debt burdens on assets now worth a fraction of what they paid for them.

This is a common problem I work with in Coaching and Consulting with executives in Australia. Many professionals on high salaries leveraged their assets and salaries in get rich quick schemes, or borrowed heavily, and are now loaded up with heavy debt and have often sold off most of their assets. Many have had to be coached and relearn sound and conservative financial planning, saving and investment techniques, in part with myself, and in part with qualified and registered Financial Planners, Tax Agents and Accountants.

6.     Hoarding/Under-Spending. This technique of “hiding the money under the bed” sounds like a quaint throwback to the Great Depression of the 1930’s, but the recent GFC was a near Depression according to most analysts such as Halligan(2010). It too has produced a new generation of fear based money holders, who are developing negative fear based obsessions on the safety of their money. In some cases these people are holding large amounts of cash at home or at some location, instead of trusting banks, the economy or the government. It is a form of negative control due to the fact they feel out of control themself(Smith:2002).

This fear is partly based on being burnt personally in the recent GFC as well as commentator analysis about the continuing financial instability and unresolved debt and structural issues in global banking(Rajun:2010). Rajun and other commentators such as Catherine Fox(2010) argue that the recent GFC is a telling example of undoing a lesson learned, and then having to learn it again, albeit at a much larger scale.

Rajun(2010) explains that the last great Depression in the 1930’s led to the USA enacting the Glass-Steagall Divide bill, which basically created clear guidelines and a firewall between high risk “investment banks”, and regular consumer “commercial banks”. This prevented private capitalists being able to cross over and take consumer banks, backed by Government guarantees and funding, on hugely risky business activity that could see bankruptcy and loss of the small guys savings, and the governments needing to bail out the private sector entrepreneurs. This firewall successfully regulated and created a stable society and financial system for 60 years. In the late 1980’s and 1990’s Wall Street and the Financial sector continually lobbied politicians to remove this firewall, and as explained earlier, unlock credit to the masses.

In the end the Clinton Administration repealed the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, and from then on the stage was set for the next Great Financial crisis, which would this time threaten the world, as globalization now made the mixing or co-mingling of banking activities, a spreading phenomenon of the western world. We had to repeat the lesson now unlearnt. The words “Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it” ring all too horribly true in this context.

Some believe we have not learnt any lesson yet at all. The window for the chance of reform may have already passed, notes Professor Laurence Kotlikoff, a respected Head of Economics at Boston University. He believes that the recently passed Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform bill by the Obama Administration is highly compromised and fails to address the systemic problems that created the sub-prime fiasco, nor does it contain statutes which will arrest the greed and self-serving nature of Wall street.

The shock losses of personal fortunes, retirement incomes, investment houses, retirement superannuation income streams and assets has traumatised a new generation, argues Smith(2010). There is real fear of a coming “Great Depression” and many are over correcting and becoming very conservative in their use of money. Some are starting to live lives of self-imposed poverty and denial of luxuries and some basic goods and services so they can save more(Smith:2010). Psychologists have shown that it hurts more to lose $1000 than it feels good to win $1000(Buchanan:2009). The impact of the GFC is like trauma to some(Ariely:2009).

People afflicted in this way show signs of social withdrawal as they retreat into their “fight or flight” survival brain, and live in a frozen fear state. They live in survival mode even when that is not a reasonable or objective summation of their revised financial standing in the post GFC world. In one case a retired Wall Street Junk Bonds guru from the 1980’s was arrested going through garbage in the rear of a swanky New York restaurant. The court was told by prosecutors that he had gone from about 200 million to about 22 million as a result of the GFC. He had the means to live a comfortable life but had an irrational hysteria that meant he felt he was on the poverty line. The court ordered psychiatric help.

7.     Unreality/Denial/Grandiosity.  There are people in society who deal with their suffering or uncomfortable aspects of themselves by going into denial. This basic psychological defence is a human trait that some people over-develop as a way of being in life. Psychologists note we do this in order to defend or block out an uncomfortable reality. We may instead compensate by creating a grandiose and false reality, complete with a matching image, materialistic trappings and symbols of success, and a new story of our life so far to match.

This typically narcissistic personality, such as reported earlier in this article with Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, normally need a good income stream to create and sustain such an image driven, grandiose lifestyle. Often their income does not match their lifestyle spending habits and so they typically go into debt, and borrow to create the image of success(Meier:2009). The Narcissistic personality by definition does not identify with any part of their own self that would betray their image, and so often have a mountain of unpaid bills(Behary:2008), or resort to some of the money disorder techniques in this article to survive.

This personality is also predatory(Tucker:1999) and will exploit others for their money or in order to make money from others in any way possible, without morals, compassion or remorse(Babiak:2006). They often latch onto emotionally weak types and use them till their utility value(money) is exhausted, then dump them and move on to the next victim(Babiak:2006). In organisations they may defraud the company, steal money through false invoicing or claims or demands for bonuses, pay rises and promotions(Babiak:2006). They may take credit for others work and then try to claim bonuses and promotions for their “hard work”.

They may show up in popular press as a conman. Australia has played host over the last few years to a man whose real name is Andrew John Harper, but who has had fancy aliases such as Dr Ryan Reece DuPont(Kaila and Buttler:2010). He is affectionately known by the press as a “Love Rat” for his serial seduction, fleecing and running out on at least 17 Australian women of financial means(Kaila and Buttler:2010). He presented a grandiose story, false credentials, and had money(of his previous victims) to convince the next victim. He displays many of the traits of a Narcissist who coldly uses others to fund and prop up their own grandiose unreal lifestyle and self-image. These people predate on others for financial, emotional, sexual and lifestyle resources and needs(Babiak:2006).

They are often called the Corporate Psychopath(Babiak:2006) and will be expert at company politics, will back stab and betray others to get to the top where more money, status, power and image lie in wait for them as a reward. This personality wreaks havoc in organisations and in teams as they are not team players because “it’s all about me!!” and the person feels entitled and without feelings in getting their way every time, regardless of the impact and expense to others.

The problem is that this Narcissistic personality is commonly rewarded and does indeed climb to the top of many organisations, and into the Executive team ranks. One of the common scenarios that bring myself into an executive team in organisations is the CEO needing advice about troubled team dynamics at the Executive level.

When I make a diagnosis and assess the company and its senior people I often find a malignant narcissistic personality behind much of the destabilisation and leadership issues in the company. This personality is hard to work with as they are right and you are unimportant, and they will “play you along” as a game with no real intention to engage in reflection via coaching or any other third party intervention. Money issues are one common symptom of their dysfunction that normally does emerge in discussions.

A common outcome is that these persons crash and burn through their unscrupulous ways catching up with them. I have been part of engagements that have led to these types of persons suddenly resigning and leaving when placed under the spotlight. Subsequent investigation often uncovers criminal or other conduct at odds with the good name of the company and its expectations of its employees.

We also often uncover false CV’s with non-existent qualifications and experience, or dodgy qualifications from “internet Universities” or “Internet Paper Mills” as they are sometimes called. These “institutions” issue fancy sounding MBA’s and other degrees for money, and not requiring study or any meaningful learning to occur. On one hastily departed Executives computer we found a trashy and “cut and paste” style Masters submission that would have failed at Bachelor level in any internationally recognised University. This “University” issued the executive a Double Major Masters degree in Business and in International Finance on the basis of this hastily contrived submission of cut and paste work from Google searches of a “topic”.

A related form of unreality and subsequent grandiosity comes from the financially poor, who often are financially and generally uneducated members of society(Rajun:2010). In this scenario these persons are seduced and convinced that they too can and should have the lifestyles of others(Rajun:2010). The true slow and hard path of raising oneself from poverty via improving oneself via education is bypassed. Typically free and easy credit is made available to people unable to understand basic financial disciplines(Halligan :2010).

In America, the Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac loan books were full of toxic loans to people who were never financially educated, were unemployed, or whose incomes were never able to pay off these materialistic carrots dangled in front of them(Rajun:2010). These people were sold a lie and encouraged to “have it all”. Everyone got greedy, consumed more.

Likewise in Australia we have seen the financially illiterate taken for a ride by spruikers of investment schemes, Superannuation schemes, Tax Effective schemes, and property trust, such as those promoted by Storm Financial Services(Collett:2009). The people entering these schemes were not in a position to be properly informed about their commitments in many cases, argued the liquidators, as they had no education, grounding or understanding of basic financial instruments or their underlying financial concepts(Collett:2009).

The unsustainable nature of this course of action created temporary but illusory hopes with increased credit and materialistic gadgets and objects for all, but the collapse has seen these taken away, and now sitting idle, or to be demolished as in the case of over 600 half finished Developer building estates in countries like Ireland(McDermott:2010).

Rajan(2009) argues that the end-result is some countries are closer to bankruptcy than ever before, taxes are rising, social policy benefits and services are being slashed, all which affect more of the poorer masses who are saddled with personal bankruptcy or lifetime debt burdens on assets now worth a fraction of what they paid for them. The poor will be personally saddled with not just their own debts, but also the reduced governmental safety net of services as a result of massive government bailouts of the rich and the immoral practices of Banks, Financial Services organizations, and individuals(Halligan:2010).

The 7 money disorders are but a snapshot of some of the disturbing financial dynamics emerging post-GFC in society. The bottom-line seems to be that money taps into brain circuits evolved to make biologically important activities rewarding and therefore potentially addictive(Buchanan:2009). Neuroscience sees this whole money problem as a brain problem at the end of the day.

The limbic brain is associated with the instant gratification/instant reward part of us(Carter:2005). The limbic brain can over-develop in people to override pathways in the brain that would normally process impulses and information in the frontal pre-cortex brain where rational logical thinking occurs(Carter:2006). When this occurs then people start living from emotionally reactive and impulsive parts of themself, and they lose the delay-gratification disciplines within themself that the front brain gives us all(Carter:2005).

Whether this be food, sex or money it does not matter to the brain as the same pathways that process food signals are also those that process money and sex signals once a person lives from their emotional limbic brains(Briers:2009). Neuroscience helps us understand how we can develop money disorders but the total picture is still emerging. The resilience of some people to not become addictive to money is still yet to be understood. The effects of stress from events like the GFC and its simulated threat to our survival mechanisms is still now the subject of research.

Regardless of whether some people are needy or greedy, it is clear that money has come a long way from the cold unemotional rhetoric of capitalist founder Adam Smith and his economic theories of money. Economic models of the past tend to disown subjective and psychological inputs in describing and predicting economic behaviours. This may no longer be an appropriate or correct assumption, but that would in itself be the topic of another entirely separate article!!

Tel: +61-8-93702341
Email: r.boyd@corporateenergetics.com.au
Website: www.corporateenergetics.com.au

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