Content area
Abstract
The field of psychology has traditionally considered speaking about money and wealth to be a taboo in American culture. The discourse about money in the psychological literature is relegated to discussion of the professional fee in the therapeutic setting and primarily emphasizes the meaning of money as an internal construct. Consequently, money itself is not examined as a monetary mechanism that affects individual and community well-being. My research is a paradigmatic shift from the traditional focus and praxis in psychology on the individual as the locus of the problem and on the neutrality of money to a praxis that attends to individual experiences within a group context and that examines money as a structure. In this research I examine the neglect within the field of psychology of seeing through money and wealth and the habitual unconsciousness towards suffering surrounding money.
This research on tending to psyche through developing critical consciousness of wealth is an in-depth inquiry into the process of communal re-imaging of money and well-being. The purpose of this study was to deeply listen and attend to experiences and images pertaining to money and wealth with a focus on what has been silenced, marginalized, and disavowed. To explore this I facilitated a participatory action research methodology consisting of five group meetings with health practitioners in San Diego, California, with an emphasis on developing critical consciousness of money. The participants utilized dialogue and art-making as modalities for co-investigating their relationship to money and wealth. Inquiries included explorations of national currency and complementary currencies.
The exploration of complementary currency was a significant factor in the process of seeing through and deconstructing stereotypes of money and wealth and towards re-imagining new possibilities. Art-making addressed personal and collective images. As the group engaged in dialogue with the art images an archetypal shift occurred and there was movement from themselves as the object or problem to money as a situation that could be examined. From this viewpoint creative transformation of their relationship to money and wealth took a different form. As a result of the findings I propose a praxis that addresses the current monetary system and new images of well-being as this pertains to wealth.
