Poley the devils riches; a modern history of greed (2016)

THE DEVIL’S RICHES SPEKTRUM: Publications of the German Studies Association Series editor: David M Luebke, University of Oregon Published under the auspices of the German Studies Association, Spektrum offers current perspectives on culture, society, and political life in the German-speaking lands of central Europe—Austria, Switzerland, and the Federal Republic—from the late Middle Ages to the present day Its titles and themes reflect the composition of the GSA and the work of its members within and across the disciplines to which they belong—literary criticism, history, cultural studies, political science, and anthropology Volume Volume The Holy Roman Empire, Reconsidered Edited by Jason Philip Coy, Benjamin Marschke, and David Warren Sabean Beyond Alterity German Encounters with Modern East Asia Edited by Qinna Shen and Martin Rosenstock Volume Weimar Publics/Weimar Subjects Rethinking the Political Culture of Germany in the 1920s Edited by Kathleen Canning, Kerstin Barndt, and Kristin McGuire Volume Conversion and the Politics of Religion in Early Modern Germany Edited by David M Luebke, Jared Poley, Daniel C Ryan, and David Warren Sabean Volume Walls, Borders, Boundaries Spatial and Cultural Practices in Europe Edited by Marc Silberman, Karen E Till, and Janet Ward Volume After The History of Sexuality German Genealogies with and Beyond Foucault Edited by Scott Spector, Helmut Puff, and Dagmar Herzog Volume Becoming East German Socialist Structures and Sensibilities after Hitler Edited by Mary Fulbrook and Andrew I Port Volume Mixed Matches Transgressive Unions in Germany from the Reformation to the Enlightenment Edited by David Luebke and Mary Lindemann Volume Kinship, Community, and Self Essays in Honor of David Warren Sabean Edited by Jason Coy, Benjamin Marschke, Jared Poley, and Claudia Verhoeven Volume 10 The Emperor’s Old Clothes Constitutional History and the Symbolic Language of the Holy Roman Empire Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger Translated by Thomas Dunlap Volume 11 The Devil’s Riches A Modern History of Greed Jared Poley The Devil’s Riches A Modern History of Greed 12 JARED POLEY berghahn NEW YORK • OXFORD www.berghahnbooks.com Published in 2016 by Berghahn Books www.berghahnbooks.com © 2016 Jared Poley All rights reserved Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Poley, Jared, 1970– The devil’s riches : a modern history of greed / Jared Poley pages cm — (Spektrum : publications of the German Studies Association ; Volume 11) Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 978-1-78533-126-8 (hardback : alk paper) — ISBN 978-1-78533-127-5 Avarice—History I Title BJ1535.A8P65 2016 178—dc23 2015034839 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-78533-126-8 hardback ISBN 978-1-78533-127-5 ebook But he who loves riches sits on a shaky limb; a little breeze comes—and it enters his head to steal, to practise usury, to drive hard bargains, and other such evil practices, all of which serve him only to acquire the riches of the devil and not those of God —Paracelsus, Liber prologi in vitam beatam (1533) Terms gradually die when the functions and experiences in the actual life of society cease to be bound up with them At times, too, they only sleep, or sleep in certain respects, and acquire a new existential value from a new social situation They are recalled then because something in the present state of society finds expression in the crystallization of the past embodied in the words —Norbert Elias, The History of Manners CONTENTS Preface ix Introduction The Devil’s Riches: A Modern History of Greed Chapter Greed and Avarice before Absolutism 13 Chapter The Confessionalization of an Emotion 54 Chapter Greed and the Law in the Seventeenth Century 84 Chapter Greed, Consumerism, and the State 101 Chapter Greed and the Oscillations between Liberalism and Socialism 129 Chapter Greed and the New Spiritualism 151 Chapter The Psychology and Psychoanalysis of Greed 179 Conclusions Greed and History 203 Index 207 PREFACE I was struck during a trip to the Florida Panhandle in March 2009 by the visual indications of financial collapse Miles of beachfront property stretched out along Highway 30a, each house with a “for sale” sign Other houses had been framed but the construction halted, and they were being reclaimed by nature; wind and sand tore away the house wrap and pitted the wood Standpipe memorials to acquisition slowly crumbled To be clear, this was not Detroit, or Stockton, or even Atlanta, cities demolished by the fallout of the economic neutron bomb of 2008 Highway 30a was in theory something different, a kind of monument to American real estate fantasy, one populated by vacation rentals, investment properties, and luxurious getaways Even Karl Rove owned a house there, in Rosemary Beach I remember thinking at the time—naively, in hindsight—that the detritus of the housing bubble strewn along this stretch of the beach surely indicated some permanent change in the operations of unrestrained capitalism, the wreckage clear evidence that the machinery of desire had stripped its gears Even my friend the banker seemed concerned That dire assessment was not entirely accurate, of course, but that is beside the point Our collective anxiety about the origins of the financial crisis was quite real, fueled by the responses to the role that greed played in economic downfall The Devil’s Riches (which takes its title from a passage written by Paracelsus in 1533) is about the history of greed in the modern period One part history of emotions and one part intellectual history, the volume examines how greed has been represented, understood, and analyzed since roughly 1450 It is oriented around three central themes: religion, economics, and health Each of these areas of intellectual life was concerned with producing knowledge about, and channeling the power of, financial desire The volume shows how ideas about greed and avarice, never simply static or natural, helped formulate core elements of the modern experience As discourses about religion, economics, and health underwent periods of dramatic change, greed was there to assist people make sense of those changes Those undertaking an analysis of greed both clarified and advanced the selfinterrogation and argument that constitutes the Western intellectual tradition This book tells that story *** I have incurred many debts—intellectual and otherwise—in the course of writing this book The research was supported by the Georgia State University x Preface History Department, by the College of Arts and Sciences, and by the GSU Research Foundation I express my gratitude to David Warren Sabean, Mary Lindemann, Jason Coy, Ben Marschke, Claudia Verhoeven, Mike Sauter, Barry Trachtenberg, Merry Wiesner-Hanks, Ali Garbarini, Britta McEwen, Janet Ward, David Barclay, Charles Lansing, Roman Lach, Alexander Schunka, Wolfgang Breul, and Duane Corpis The participants in the Southeast German Studies Workshop—who patiently offered their collective criticism of this project at various stages—have been extremely helpful, and the friendships I have made through this remarkable constellation of academics have been particularly meaningful Monica Black, Tom Lekan, Eric Kurlander, Doug McGetchin, Tony Steinhoff, and Bryan Ganaway deserve special notice There is a long list of people, geniuses all, to thank in my department at GSU: David Sehat, Nick Wilding, Jake Selwood, Marni Davis, Greg Moore, Denis Gainty, Julia Gaffield, Hugh Hudson, Jeff Young, Alex Cummings, and Isa Blumi, but most especially Rob Baker, Denise Davidson, and Michelle Brattain I also call attention to those in our wonderful community in Decatur: David Davis, Odile Ferroussier, Reagan Koski, Geoff Koski, David Naugle, Rachel Ibarra, Lisa Armistead, Dan Kidder, Lyn Jellison, Jim Jellison, Joey Pate, Laurie Pate, Michele Hillegass, Aaron Hillegass, Grant Eager, Ginger Eager, Christi Wiltse, Justin Wiltse, John Ellis, Duran Dodson, Miguel Alandete, and Joy Pope as well as all of their great kids Robert and Martha Poley—my parents—and James and Sylvia Carruth—my in-laws—are uniquely loving and supportive James: you are missed I am especially grateful to the editor of the Spektrum series, David M Luebke, for his collegiality, warmth, and intelligence; to Marion Berghahn for her support; to Chris Chappell for his editorial work; and to the anonymous reviewers for selflessly providing such useful critiques of the manuscript Of course, all the errors that remain are my own I dedicate this book, with love, to Laura, Felix, and Vivian The Psychology and Psychoanalysis of Greed 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 201 Ibid., 275–76 Ibid., 276 Ibid Ferenczi, Selected Papers, II: 248 Ibid., II: 257 Ibid., II: 362–63 Ibid., II: 364 Ibid., III: 33 Ernest Jones, Papers on Psycho-Analysis, 5th ed (Boston: Beacon Press, 1961), 430 Ibid., 429–30 Erich Fromm, The Crisis of Psychoanalysis (New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1970), 142 Ibid., 149 Ibid., 143–44 Ibid., 144 Ibid Ibid., 146 Ibid., 155 S Sargent and Marian Wesley Smith, eds., Culture and Personality, 25th anniversary ed (New York: Cooper Square, 1974), Sargent and Smith, Culture and Personality, Ibid Ibid Melanie Klein and Joan Riviere, Love, Hate and Reparation (New York: Norton, 1964) Ibid., 6–7 Ibid., 10 Ibid., 19 Ibid., 26 Ibid., 26–27 Ibid., 27 Ibid Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983), 27 Ibid., 28 Ibid., 28–29 Ibid., Anti-Oedipus, 29 Bibliography Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983 Ferenczi, Sándor Selected Papers New York: Basic Books, 1950 ——— Sex in Psycho-Analysis Contributions to Psycho-Analysis New York: Dover, 1960 Freud, Sigmund The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess, 1887–1904 Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1985 ——— The Freud Reader Edited by Peter Gay New York: Norton, 1995 202 The Devil’s Riches ——— The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud London London: Hogarth, 1953–1974 Fromm, Erich The Crisis of Psychoanalysis New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1970 Jones, Ernest Papers on Psycho-Analysis 5th ed Boston: Beacon Press, 1961 Klein, Melanie and Joan Riviere Love, Hate and Reparation New York: Norton, 1964 Nordau, Max Simon Degeneration New York: D Appleton, 1895 Owen, Alex The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007 Poggi, Gianfranco Money and the Modern Mind: George Simmel’s Philosophy of Money Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993 Sargent, S and Marian Wesley Smith, eds Culture and Personality 25th anniversary ed New York: Cooper Square, 1974 Simmel, Georg The Philosophy of Money 3rd enlarged ed London: Routledge, 2004 Weber, Max The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Routledge Classics London, Routledge, 2001 Wiener Psychoanalytische Vereinigung Minutes of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society New York: International Universities Press, 1962 Conclusions Greed and History S peaking on his “Theory of Symbolism” in the middle of WWI, Ernest Jones applied his psychoanalytic insight to the ways the British were financing the war effort: “Modern economists,” he wrote later in the British Journal of Psychology, know that the idea of wealth means simply “a lien on future labour,” and that any counters on earth could be used as a convenient emblem for it just as well as a “gold standard.” Metal coins however, and particularly gold, are unconscious symbols of excrement, the material from which most of our sense of possession, in infantile times, was derived The ideas of possession and wealth, therefore, obstinately adhere to the ideas of “money” and gold for definite psychological reasons, and people simply will not give up the “economist’s fallacy” of confounding money with wealth This superstitious attitude will cost England in particularly many sacrifices after the War, when efforts will probably be made at all costs to reintroduce a gold standard.1 Five years later, John Maynard Keynes made a similar point: Dr Freud relates that there are peculiar reasons deep in our subconsciousness why gold in particular should satisfy strong instincts and serve as a symbol The magical properties with which Egyptian priestrcraft anciently imbued the yellow metal, it has never altogether lost… Of late years the auri sacra fames has sought to envelop itself in a garment of respectability as densely respectable as was ever met with, even in the realms of sex or religion Whether this was first put on as a necessary armour to win the hard-won fight against bimetallism and is still worn, as the gold-advocates allege, because gold is the sole prophylactic against the plague of fiat moneys, or whether it is a furtive Freudian cloak, we need not be curious to inquire.2 Jones and Keynes came to the topic of money from very different disciplinary positions, yet each of them connected in their statements the three themes that have animated this book: religion, economics, and health Arguably, greed is the point of connection, the nexus around which these ideas swirled chaotically 204 The Devil’s Riches Greed—occult, degenerate, embodied, psychologized, socialized—remains an operative element of the modern capitalist order but also of its critique If we take the fields of inquiry that we have considered over the course of this book as distinct avenues of intellectual inquiry—religion, economics, and health— we can ascertain the critical role that criticism of greed and avarice played in the generation of our culture When we consider the cultural work that greed has performed over the past half millennium, we should be struck by the diverse terrain upon which people saw it displayed We see greed as part of commercial life, a determinant of one’s honor, and a fact of spiritual life Greed was invoked in legal settings, in international disputes, and as a focus of social relations Greed was used to distinguish the perfect from the imperfect, the good from the bad, the healthy from the sick; it provided ways to understand the complexities of heaven and hell, appropriate and inappropriate behaviors, balance and chaos It is important to note that the ways that greed was presented and discussed over the period of time under consideration in this book did not remain static If anything, this book challenges the idea of the existence of a single form of greed, one that went from “bad” in the religiously dominated early modern period to “good” in the secular age of “Homo economicus.” There was no single story of a vice transformed magically into virtue through the alchemical power of free markets and liberal democracy Instead of one single historical transformation by which greed became good, a story that everyone claims to know but that is almost certainly wrong, this book has addressed three other prisms through which to view the history of greed In our discussions of religion, we saw how greed was used first as a critique of the Christian hierarchy by reformers and then how reformers like Martin Luther and Jean Calvin produced novel theological understandings of desire While limited to a discussion of various Christian sects, that discussion allowed us to see how religious, social, and cultural changes were intertwined Greed simply did not operate in the same fashion after it underwent a process of confessionalization; the category worked differently in different confessional contexts We also traced how greed operated in light of other heterodox spiritualties that perhaps sought to recreate an occult tradition in the age of science and enlightenment That greed—instable, transmutable—is a topic of interest to reform theologians and new age theosophists alike is a potent indication of its cultural power and significance Greed’s potency is illuminated from a different angle when we turn our attention to economics and the applied effort to manage resources For much of the period under consideration greed—and the profit motive more generally—imperiled one’s financial honor When considering state expenditures, a state’s unwillingness to spend (and the avarice of its functionaries) undermined the economic well-being of an entire nation Indeed, it is helpful to see that Conclusions 205 those who collectively invented the foundations of our modern economic system—Adam Smith, but not alone—continued to employ a language of morality to describe its workings It seems that only the Austrian economists of the twentieth century—and their many fellow travelers—are comfortable with the erection of a firewall between economic behavior and moral considerations When we take the long view of economic thinking—using greed and avarice as the connecting point—we see that economic discourse was really only lifted out of a language of morality in the early twentieth century, and this secularized economics (which mocked the inclusion of moral considerations in economic calculations as an atavism from the medieval period) did not assume its position as orthodoxy in the discipline until after WWII.3 The increasing attention to the psychology of desire by economic thinkers who used greed and avarice as a way into a larger framework for understanding economic behaviors is an equally striking historical trajectory When we think about how the history of greed and the history of health and medicine have intersected, we see a broad transformation from alchemy to psychoanalysis Each approach was interested in figuring out how inordinate desire shaped behavior and health, and each recognized the centrality of the body in seeing the symptoms of the disease Greed, it was widely seen, was something that made one ill, and that illness was manifested not only in the body but also in the web of social connections that joined individuals into a community While Poggio may have intuited aspects of the subsequent development of the category in his 1429 dialogue, that story was much more intricate than what we see in that text Modern greed looks, feels, and operates differently from prior incarnations of the vice It challenged thinkers to imagine new possibilities for treatment, to probe its meanings with novel theologies, and to understand the economic ramifications of new forms of desire in different ways and with different analytical tools Greed is perhaps the emotion that makes us most human and that, therefore, seems the most natural, or unchanged, or outside of history The central argument of this book has been that greed has a history, one shaped in peculiar ways by the shared human experience of modernity, and this book has offered a collection of ways to view those changes over time Greed not only obscures, but it also illuminates aspects of our shared history Viewing historical change through the lens of a feeling and the ideas that were generated to apprehend the ways it functioned allow us to understand in new ways the foundations upon which our culture and society have been built Greed is uniquely positioned to allow us to view these changes—and the deployments of power that facilitate the creation of our modern world—with fresh insight Understanding greed’s history allows us to understand better our world and the ways it works 206 The Devil’s Riches Notes Ernest Jones, Papers on Psycho-Analysis, 5th ed (Boston: Beacon Press, 1961), 129; Ernest Jones, “The Theory of Symbolism,” British Journal of Psychology, 1904–1920 9, no (1918): 181–229 John Maynard Keynes, “Auri Sacra Fames,” in Essays in Persuasion (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1932), 182–83 See, for instance, Ramon Diaz, “The Political Economy of Nostalgia,” in Toward Liberty: Essays in Honor of Ludwig von Mises on the Occasion of His 90th Birthday, ed F.A von Hayek et al., vol II, vols (Menlo Park: Institute for Humane Studies, 1971), 441–54 Bibliography Diaz, Ramon “The Political Economy of Nostalgia.” In Toward Liberty: Essays in Honor of Ludwig von Mises on the Occasion of His 90th Birthday, edited by F.A von Hayek, Henry Hazlitt, Leonard Read, Gustavo Velasco, and F.A Harper, II:441–54 Menlo Park: Institute for Humane Studies, 1971 Jones, Ernest Papers on Psycho-Analysis 5th ed Boston: Beacon Press, 1961 ——— “The Theory of Symbolism.” British Journal of Psychology, 1904–1920 9, no (1918): 181–229 Keynes, John Maynard “Auri Sacra Fames.” In Essays in Persuasion, 181–85 New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1932 INDEX absolutism, 85, 97, 116 accumulation; overaccumulation, 6, 14, 20, 26, 33, 35–7, 64, 68, 69–70, 75–7, 102, 105–6, 121–2, 131–2, 145, 154, 160, 164, 171, 173, 180–1, 193, 195 acquisition, 105–6, 116, 130–1, 133, 145, 152–3, 181, 185, 194, 196–7 Adler, Alfred, 188 Adorno, Theodor, 151–3, 166–8, 173 “The Stars Down to Earth: The Los Angeles Times Astrology Column”, 152–3 “Theses against Occultism”, 151 agency, 16–7, 159, 169–70 aggression, 74, 190, 196 alchemy, 8, 14, 31, 38–9, 153–4, 156–7, 159, 165–6, 204–5 ambition, 18, 45, 56, 60, 62, 65–8, 71–2, 74, 76, 88–9, 91–2, 94, 96–7, 101–4, 120–3, 163, 198 anal function, 194 anal personality type, 9, 187–8, 195 anal zone, 186–8, 195, 198 anger, 47, 60, 62–3, 88, 90 anus, 186–9, 196–8 anxiety, 17, 19, 56, 66, 75, 85, 105, 120, 122, 131, 137, 145, 152, 168, 189, 192–3 Arif, Mohammed, 155–6 ascetism, 42, 132–3, 164 astral world; astral plane, 5, 158, 173 astrology, 152–3, 156–7 Atlantic World, 77, 84, 136, 142 aura, 5, 157–9 d’Aurevilly, Jules Barbey, 162 Austen, Jane, 140 Pride and Prejudice, 140 Sense and Sensibility, 140 austerity, 115–7, 119 avaritia, 9, 14, 43–7, 130 balance, 8, 41, 74, 90 103, 105, 114–5, 136, 139, 204 Balzac, Honoré de, 140–1, 163 Eugénie Grandet, 140–1, 163 Basel, 31 Baudelaire, Charles, 161–3 Les fleurs du mal, 163 beauty, 60, 145, 182 behavior, 2, 4, 6–7, 9–10, 14, 16, 22, 27, 29, 33–5, 47, 55, 57, 60–1, 66–8, 75, 77–8, 96, 108, 118, 120–4, 131–5, 138–9, 142–3, 145, 170, 180–2, 184–92, 194–5, 198–9, 204–5 belly, 25, 29–30, 103 Bentham, Jeremy, 10, 123–4, 141–2 Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, 123–4 Besant, Annie, 157, 159 Blavatsky, Helena, 10, 155, 157, 162, 172, 198 Bloch, Ernst, 191 Boas, Franz, 191 body, 8–9, 15, 19, 21, 28, 30, 32, 34, 39, 43, 54, 59, 65, 73, 97, 110, 114–5, 118, 160, 164, 187–91, 198–9, 205 booty, 85–7 botany, 109, 111–2 bourgeois, 5, 10, 140, 143–4, 153, 157, 159, 164, 166, 194–5, 198 Boyle, Robert, 31 Skeptical Chymist, 31 Bracciolini, Poggio, 1–2, 4, 9, 13–22, 26, 29, 33, 46–8, 205 “On Avarice”, 13–22 breast, 196–7 Brontë, Charlotte, 140 Jane Eyre, 140 Brontë, Emily, 141 Wuthering Heights, 141 Brower, Brady, 172 208 Index Cagliostro, 184 Calcutta, 24 Calvin, Jean, 5, 9, 54–5, 63–73, 77–8, 122, 192, 204 “Argument on the First Epistle to the Corinthians”, 70–3 Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles, 63–4 Commentaries on the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, 65–7 Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses, 64 Institutes of the Christian Religion, 64, 69 “Of Prayer”, 69 “On the Christian Life”, 64–8 cameralism, 96, 101, 109–10, 112–3, 115–6, 119 capital development, 116, 144, 147 capitalism, 101, 108, 121, 130, 142, 152–3, 167, 171, 192, 194, 197–9 consumer, 101 industrial, 130, 144, 147 Capuchin Constitution, 57 carnal, 69 castration, 188–9, 192 chain of being, 34 Chaldeans, 71 chaos, 12, 21, 30, 34, 70, 122, 124, 157, 204 characterology, 9, 173, 185, 192–7 charity, 5, 17–8, 22–3, 39–43, 47, 59, 63, 90, 92–3, 97, 132–4 Charles I, 97 Chronicles 12:33, 68 circulation, 7, 32, 36, 46, 74–5, 97, 110–1, 144 civil society, 91, 113–5 Colet, John, 56 collecting, 18, 70, 74, 160, 180, 182, 188, 191, 192–3 colonization, 61, 77, 84, 115, 135–7, 140,154, 168, 172, 179 Comaroff, Jean, 170–2 Comaroff, John, 170–2 commerce, 1, 7, 9, 21, 47, 85–6, 92, 96, 106, 110, 114–5, 119, 204 commodity fetish, 152, 170 communism, 142–3 community, 5, 14, 20–1, 25–43, 47–8, 62, 67, 103, 107–8, 112, 120, 136, 205 companies, 24, 136 concupiscence, 4, 20, 32–3, 65, 92, 94 confession, 5, 9, 43, 54–5, 57 confessionalization, 5, 9, 32, 43, 48, 54–5, 57, 67, 77–8, 204 Confucianism, 110, 112–3, 115 connectivity, 22, 39, 48 conscience, 19, 24, 27, 30, 47–8, 67, 74–5, 143 consciousness, 60, 143, 152, 159, 190–1, 193, 196 consumer revolution, 9, 106–8 consumption, 2, 21, 103, 120, 138–9, 143, 145, 179 conversion, 54, 64, 73 Corinth, 70 Corinthians 6:1–10, 68–9 cosmos, 32 courtiers, 1, 61, 85, 89, 92, 95, 106, 118 covetousness, 1, 2, 5, 8, 14, 18, 31, 35, 43–8, 56–73, 85, 91, 106–7, 123, 129–30, 141, 154, 158, 188 Creation, 8, 38, 59 Crete, 96 cruelty, 41, 66, 72, 76–7, 86–7, 89, 104, 124 cupiditas, 9, 14, 43–7, 130 cupidity, 5, 45, 55, 62, 69, 72–3, 77, 142, 166 Cyrus II, 72 Daniel, 71–2 Darwin, Charles, 172 Dattner, Ernst, 190 debt, 24, 131 debtor, 131 Debus, Allen, 31 Decalogue, 64 degeneracy, 66–7, 71, 151, 159, 163, 180, 198 Deleuze, Gilles, 197–8 Anti-Oedipus, 197 demonomania, 190 dependence, 21–2, 113, 196 Index Descartes, René, 32 Deuteronomy 5:21, 64 devil, 21, 42, 59, 66, 184 Dickens, Charles, 141 A Christmas Carol, 141 disease, 6, 9, 40, 62, 65–6, 85, 120, 138, 140, 205 Dutch, 86–8, 137 Dutch India Company, 85 economics, development, 116, 119–20 economics, liberal, 89, 130–9, 153, 173, 204 economy, global, 24, 102, 106, 108, 113–5, 165 economy, informal, 151 economy, money, 101, 146, 160,168, 190, 192 economy, moral, 6, 26, 28, 36, 39, 147 economy, occult, 161–2, 171, 173 economy, political, 110, 134, 136, 144 economy, regular, 166, 171 effeminacy, 1, 21, 56, 71 Elias, Norbert, 45 empire, 7, 77–8, 84, 86–7, 92, 112, 118 Engels, Friedrich, 143 Enlightenment, 101–2, 109–10, 116, 154, 170, 204 Enlightenment, Scottish, 110, 115 entrepreneurialism, 7, 153 equilibrium, 105, 109, 114–5, 165 Erasmus, Desiderius, 5, 23, 31, 54, 57–63, 73, 77–8 Complaint of Peace, 62 Concerning the Immense Mercy of God, 62 Handbook of the Militant Christian, 58–60 In Praise of Folly, 23, 60–1 On Mending the Peace of the Church, 63 Sileni Alcibiadis, 62 evil, 5, 13, 16, 24, 28, 34, 44, 66, 91, 97, 107, 129–31, 142–3 excess, 9, 16, 18, 40, 63, 86, 122, 184 excrement, 166, 184, 187, 189–92, 194, 197, 203 excretion, 185, 188–90, 194 209 Exodus 20:17, 64–5 extraction, 96–7 faith, 5, 66, 129, 172 Fall, 11n15, 34, 62, 67–8, 73 fecundity, 109, 133 fellowship, 13 femininity, 20, 22, 136, 189 Fộnelon, Franỗois, 9, 84, 957, 101, 107 The Adventures of Telemachus, the Son of Ulysses, 95–7, 101, 107 Ferenczi, Sándor, 10, 188, 191–4 “Pecunia Olet”, 192–3 “Present-Day Problems in Psychoanalysis”, 193 “The Ontogenesis of the Interest in Money”, 191–2 feudalism, 14, 28, 145–6, 173 fiction, decadent, 10, 151, 154, 161–4, 173, 198 Fielding, Henry, 9, 120 Tom Jones, A Foundling, 120 Fifth Lateran Council, 56 fin-de-siècle, 153, 157, 170, 179–80 Fliess, Wilhelm, 154, 184–5 Florence, 1, 22, 29 Fludd, Robert, 31 Folbre, Nancy, fornication, 35 fortune, 65, 96, 104, 153 Franke, August Hermann, 102 Frankfurt, 24 Frankfurt School, 152, 194 fraternity, 55 Frederick II (the Great), 10, 102, 109–10, 115–20, 133 Anti-Machiavel, 116–9, 133 “Ueber Ehrgeitz und Habsucht/Sur la gloire et l’intérêt”, 116, 119 Frederick III/I, 116 Frederick William I, 116–8 freedom, 32, 88, 91, 93, 97, 123, 146, 183 Freud, Sigmund, 9–10, 153–4, 168, 173, 182, 184–98, 203 “Anal Eroticism and the Castration Complex”, 188–9 “Character and Anal Eroticism”, 186–8 210 Index Civilization and its Discontents, 189–90 “Dreams in Folklore”, 191 The Future of an Illusion, 189 The Interpretation of Dreams, 185 “Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood”, 188–9 “Notes upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis”, 186 “On the Transformation of Instinct as Exemplified in Anal Eroticism”, 189 “Process Notes for the Case History”, 186 “Psychopathology of Everyday Life”, 185 friendship, 17, 72, 104, 114, 139, 186 Fromm, Erich, 193–5, 198 “Psychoanalytic Characterology and Its Application to the Understanding of Culture”, 195 frugality, 58, 70–1, 101, 116, 121–4, 188 fungibility, 183 gain, 15, 20, 27, 30, 45, 56, 64, 66, 69, 71, 74, 85, 87–9, 14–, 142, 146, 154, 159 Galileo, 32 Garden, 40, 76 gender, 4, 14, 21, 56, 70–2 generosity, 37, 40–1, 104, 115 Geneva, 72 Geschiere, Peter, 167–8, 171 gift, 35, 37, 40, 71–2, 96, 151, 160–1, 189, 197 Glorious Revolution, 94 God, 5, 14, 19, 22, 24, 27–30, 33–44, 47–8, 58, 60, 62–5, 67–73, 76, 90, 103, 110, 145, 165 Godwin, William, 10, 130–5, 139 “Of Avarice and Profusion”, 130–3 gold, 8, 14, 19, 23–4, 31, 38–9, 59, 61, 66, 70, 93, 96, 102, 105, 119, 144, 153, 165, 184, 190–1, 197, 203 gold standard, 203 Golden Age, 94 Gospel, 23, 27–8, 57, 71 Great Recession, Grotius, Hugo, 9, 84–9, 97 De Jurae Praedae (Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty), 85–8 Mare Liberum (Freedom of the Seas), 88–9 growth, 97, 102, 108–9, 111, 116, 122, 133, 159 Guattari, Felix, 197–8 Anti-Oedipus, 197 guild, 31, 147, 166 Habakkuk 2:6, 69–70 Halle, 102 Han China, 112, 115 happiness, 35–6, 59, 65, 96–7, 109, 112, 115, 117, 130–1, 136, 142 harmony, 97, 109–10, 112–5, 172 Harpagon, 119 Harvey, William, 97, 110–1 De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis, 97 health, 1–2, 4, 8–9, 14, 18, 20, 27, 41, 54, 60, 96, 105, 108, 110, 115, 117–20, 142, 165, 185, 198, 203–5 Heemskerck, Jacob van, 85 Helmont, Jean-Baptiste van, 31 hierarchy, sin, 13, 34, 106, 204 hierarchy, social, 13, 22, 29, 32, 38, 54, 145–6, 204 Hirschman, Albert, The Passions and the Interests, hoarding, 9, 18, 26, 48, 69, 75–7, 90, 106, 135, 139, 144, 147, 181, 191, 193 Holy Roman Empire, 30, 32, 47–8 Homo economicus; “economical man”, 139, 204 honesty, 26–7, 56, 90, 142, 163 honor, 5, 9, 13–4, 19, 28–30, 46–7, 54, 60, 69, 71–3, 85–6, 156, 159, 204 Hubert, Henri, 160 Huizinga, Johan, 3, 13, 45–7 Autumn of the Middle Ages, 3, 13, 45–7 Hull, Isabel, 113 Huysmans, J.-K., 154, 162–6 Là-Bas (The Damned), 154, 162–3, 165–6 A Rebours (Against Nature), 154, 162–3 Index identity, 14, 55, 60 incest, 23, 61, 186 individual; individuality, 5, 8, 13–5, 17– 21, 27–32, 40–3, 47–8, 89–91, 109, 120–1, 131, 133, 139, 142, 144–5, 147, 160, 164, 181, 194, 198, 205 industriousness, 96, 104 inequality, 2, 7, 37, 93, 120, 123, 134 ingenuity, 131, 138, 153 inheritance, 57–8, 76, 140–1, 156 insecurity, 152 integrity, 58 interest, 7, 23–4, 30 Jacobs, Charles, 22 Jacobs, W.W., 161 “The Monkey’s Paw”, 161 James 5:1–6, 70 Jansenism, 11n15 Jones, Ernest, 193–5, 203 “Anal-Erotic Character Traits”, 193 “Theory of Symbolism”, 203–4 Joseph, 26 justice; injustice, 3, 7, 25, 29, 55, 88–92, 97, 103–4, 121–3, 132, 134, 137 Keynes, John Maynard, 6, 8, 203 “Auri Sacra Fames”, 8, 203 Keynesianism, 118 Klein, Melanie, 195–7 Krauss, Friedrich, 191 labor, 7, 26–7, 35–6, 38, 41, 69, 93, 96, 107, 130–1, 134–5, 137, 147, 152, 168, 171 labor, division of, 7, 137 Laslett, Peter, 92 Last Days, 23 Latour, Bruno, 169 law, international, 9, 84, 88–9, 91, 109, 113–4 law, natural, 7, 9, 19, 25, 91, 111, 114 Leadbeater, Charles, 157, 172 legal structure, 30, 78, 84, 92, 94–5, 97 leisure, 76 liberality, 117–8 Lithuania, 116–8 211 Locke, John, 9, 84, 92–4, 97 Two Treatises of Government, 92–4 Lorrain, Pierre Le, 108 Louis XIV, 85, 95, 97 love, 6, 19–20, 25, 27–8, 30, 35, 37, 41–5, 55, 59, 65, 67, 95, 104, 106, 114, 123, 129, 140–2, 145–6, 182–3, 189–90, 192, 194, 196–7 Luke 11:34, 67 Luke 12:15, 43–4 Luke 12:34, 104 Luke 16:13, 67 lust, 1, 13, 15, 17, 21, 23, 45, 56, 58, 60–3, 65, 67, 69, 71–2, 76, 86–8, 92, 102–4, 111, 124, 144, 158, 163–4, 179, 190 Luther, Martin, 5, 7, 9, 14, 22–36, 43–8, 103, 123, 204 “A Sermon on Keeping Children in School”, 28–30 “An Admonition to Peace”, 28 “On Trading and Usury”, 23–4 “Treatise on Usury”, 24–7 luxury, 2,9 24, 44, 57, 62, 64–5, 70–1, 94, 105, 110, 117–8, 131, 135, 139, 145–6 Machiavelli, Nicolo, 116–8 madness, 23, 61, 76 magi, 71 magic, 5, 38, 43, 91, 151–6, 161, 163, 166–72, 179, 183, 198, 203 Magnan, Valentin, 180 Malleus Maleficarum, 163, 184 Malthus, Thomas, 10, 130, 133–5, 139 An Essay on the Principle of Population, 130–5 Mammon, 29–30, 58, 60, 67, 190 Mandeville, Bernard, 9, 106–8, 160 Fable of the Bees, 106–8, 160 market, 13, 26, 30, 41, 48, 89, 102, 105, 122–3, 131, 135–8, 140, 165–6, 171, 204 forces, 26, 138, 166 for labor, 41, 135, 137 marriage, 140 open, 135–7 Marx, Karl, 10, 142–5, 147, 153, 170, 197 Capital, 143–4 The German Ideology, 143 212 Index Grundrisse, 143–4 “On Communism and Morality”, 143 “St Max—the New Testament: ‘Ego’”, 143 masculinity, 20, 22 master, 20, 41, 67–9, 95, 136–7, 165 matchmaking, 140 matter, 32, 38–9, 110–1, 160 Matthew 6:21, 104 Matthew 6:22, 67 Matthew 6:24, 58, 67 Matthew 25:42, 41 Mauss, Marcel, 10, 40, 151, 160 Essay on the Gift, 160–1 McMahon, Darrin M., melancholia, 103 Mentor, 95–6 mercantilism, 24, 40, 46–7, 85–6, 96, 104, 115, 145, 160 Metophis, 95 Meyer, Birgit, 168 Michelet, Jules, 163 Midas, 105 Mill, John Stuart, 10, 141–2 “The Chapters on Socialism”, 142 “The Subjection of Women”, 142 “Utilitarianism”, 141–2 Mirbeau, Octave, 162 miser, 8–9, 19–22, 35–6, 74, 76, 93, 103, 107, 117, 119, 122, 132, 139–40, 144–5, 157, 160, 162, 164, 183, 186, 189, 196 miserliness, 7, 35, 75, 92, 102, 104, 106, 108, 115–6, 118, 120, 123–4, 133, 143, 186, 192–6 Mises, Ludwig von, 6–7 moderation, 73–4, 90, 104, 120 modernity, 4, 9, 21, 152–4, 167–70, 173, 199 Moliere, 119 L’Avare, 119 money, invention of, 93–4, 101, 107 moneylending, 23 Montaigne, Michel de, 7, 9, 54–5, 73–8, 84, 86 Essays, 73–8 “On Coaches”, 77 “On Constancy”, 73–4 “On physiognomy”, 73 “On Prayer”, 76 “On solitude”, 74 “On the Cannibals”, 76–7 “On the Three Kinds of Social Intercourse”, 74–6 “The Hour of Parlaying is Dangerous”, 76 “The taste of good and evil things depends on the opinion we have of them”, 74 morality, 6–7, 14, 18, 20, 85, 122, 132, 134, 138–9, 143, 153–4, 157, 160, 180, 185, 205 Morris, William, 10, 145–7, 166, 179 “A Dream of John Ball”, 146–7 “The Lesser Arts”, 145–6 News from Nowhere, 146 “Useful Work versus Useless Toil”, 146 mortality, 133 mysticism, 31, 33, 43, 156, 161, 172–3 nature, 4, 14–7, 19, 22, 32, 38–41, 46, 77, 90, 93, 109–14 nature, ladder of, 38–40 neo-Platonism, 31 New World, 76–7, 84 Newhauser, Richard, 1–2, 4, 42, 44–7 Nordau, Max, 10, 156–7, 163, 179–81, 198 Degeneration, 156, 180 occult; occultism, 5, 10, 151–73, 185, 190, 198, 204 Occupy Movement, Oedipus, 189, 197 Olcott, Henry Steel, 155–7, 159, 172 Old Diary Leaves, 155–6 oniomania, 9, 180–2, 198 Oppenheim, David, 191 oral phase, 193 Order of the Golden Dawn, 155 Orientalism, 5, 136, 172 Owen, Alex, 155, 157, 159, 161–3, 169–70 Owen, Robert, 146 Index Pacific, 87 Packham, Barbara, 110 Paracelsus, 9, 14, 31–44, 46–8, 75, 93, 120, 134 Archidoxis, 39 Astronomia Magna, 32–3, 38 De felici liberalitate, 37, 41 De fundamento scientiarum sapientiaeque, 33 De honestis utrisque divitiis, 35–7, 40–1 De summo et aeterno bono, 37 Der Grossen Wundarznei, 35 Die Bücher de Natura rerum, 38–9 Labryinthus medicorum errantium, 38 Paramirum, 32, 34 Philosophia Magna, 35 Spital-Buch, 39–40 parricide, 23, 61 parsimony, 117, 121–4, 187, 190, 195 Pascal, Blaise, 4–5 Pensées, 4–5 Paul, 45, 56, 60, 62–6, 71 Peace of Augsburg, 55 peasant, 28, 35–6, 75, 104, 191 Peasants Revolt, 28, 36 Pels, Peter, 168–70 personality, acquisitive, 194 I Peter 5:1–4, 69 II Peter 2:14, 63–4 philosopher’s stone, 31, 39, 46, 105, 153–4, 157, 164–5, 180 philosophy, natural, 38, 172 pietism, 102–3, 105, 109 Piketty, Thomas, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, piracy, 85 Plato, 76 pleasure, 27, 30, 35, 40, 43, 73–4, 76, 91, 96–7, 105, 114, 124, 131–2, 141–2, 145, 179, 183, 187, 189, 192, 196 plunder, 19, 70, 86–7 Plutarch, 87 Plutus, 60–1 Poggi, Gianfranco, 181, 183 213 political theory, 109, 112 poor, 14, 22, 26, 36–7, 39–43, 59, 63, 66, 69, 75, 93, 95, 107, 117–8, 120, 132–5, 146, 164 Pope Paul III, 57 population, 29, 101, 112, 118, 133, 135, 168, 185 Portuguese, 87–8 possessions, 1, 6, 13, 20, 23, 35–6, 40, 43–5, 66–7, 74, 88–90, 93, 95, 105, 123, 135, 142, 151, 180, 182–5, 190, 194–7, 203 potlatch, 40, 160 poverty, 24, 26, 41–3, 47, 57–9, 61–2, 68, 74, 76, 95, 103, 110, 121, 133–5, 140, 164, 186 price gouging, 26 pride, 13, 18, 35, 41, 46–7, 55, 62, 65–6, 71, 90, 96, 140, 164 privacy, 90–1 private, 19, 21–2, 27, 60, 84, 97, 194 prodigality, 58, 90, 101, 106–8, 136, 139 profit, 1, 7,14–5, 18–29, 47, 61, 71, 73–4, 77, 118, 122, 131, 136–8, 142, 144, 160, 204 profligacy, 7, 90, 117, 119, 131–2, 139 Prussia, 102, 109, 115, 118 Psalms 12:2, 68 psychoanalysis, 184–99 psychology, 74–5, 133, 147, 159–60, 163, 179–84, 197, 205 psychosexual development, 185–92 public, 18–22, 55, 60, 74, 107, 112, 133 Pufendorf, Samuel von, 9, 84, 89–92, 97 The Divine Feudal Law, 91 Of the Nature and Qualifications of Religion in Reference to Civil Society, 91 Two Books of the Elements of Universal Jurisprudence, 89 The Whole Duty of Man, 89–90 punishment, 19, 70, 90–1, 197 Pygmalion, 95 Rais, Gilles de, 164–5 Rank, Otto, 188, 190 Rat Man, 186 reason, 32–3, 58, 62–3, 67, 111 214 Index rebis, 39 Reddy, William, Reformation, Catholic, 5, 46, 78 Reformation, Protestant, 4, 5, 32, 34, 36, 42, 44, 46–8, 54–8, 62–3, 73 regulation, 112, 114 Reich, Wilhelm, 197 Reik, Theodor, 190 Reill, Peter, 110 relations, international, 60, 85, 88, 97, 114 Renaissance, 1, 39, 46–7, 97, 154 responsibility, 120, 134, 145, 163 retention, 5–6, 74–5, 84, 90, 92, 106, 108, 116, 120, 124, 180–1, 185–6, 193, 196 rights of access, 88 Riviere, Joan, 193, 195–8 “Greed, Hate, and Aggression”, 196–7 Robertson, A.F., Romans, 72 Rosenwein, Barbara, Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 10, 120 Social Contract, 120 ruler, 20, 28, 86, 94–7, 136 sacrilege, 23, 61 Sadger, Isador Isaak, 194 St Augustine, 15, 86 Salzburg, 31 Santa Catarina, 85 Sargent, S Stansfeld, 195 Satan; Satanism, 5, 63, 153–4, 163–6, 173 satisfaction; oversatisfaction, 14, 16–8, 21, 25, 34, 40–3, 66, 72–4, 86, 92, 96, 105, 113, 137, 146, 158, 162, 182, 189–92, 196–7, 203 Savonarola, 55–6 “Oratory of Divine Love”, 55–6 Say, Jean-Baptiste, 10, 135–9 A Treatise on Political Economy, 135–9 Scheer, Monique, Scrooge, Ebenezer, 119, 141 secular; secularization thesis, 4, 19, 22, 25, 35, 58, 62, 84, 89, 91–2, 153–4, 167–70, 172, 204–5 security, 30, 96, 123, 140, 152, 195–6 self, 20, 34, 40, 63, 73, 109, 133, 139, 151, 198 self-direction, 112 self-interest, 6, 15, 26, 116, 131, 135, 145, 160 selfishness, 24, 59, 101, 140, 171, 188 Seven Years War, 115 Severinus, Peter, 31 Simmel, Georg, 10, 180–3, 187, 193, 198 “On the Psychology of Money”, 181 The Philosophy of Money, 180–4 slave; slavery, 1, 18, 20–2, 63, 68–9, 72, 97, 106–7, 136, 142, 168 Smith, Adam, 7, 10, 102, 111, 115, 121–4, 130, 205 The Theory of Moral Sentiments, 121 Wealth of Nations, 110, 122 Smith, Marian W., 195 social cohesion, 93, 96, 147 social dynamics, 25, 47 social relations, 1, 22, 25, 29, 39, 47, 204 socialism, 10, 130, 142, 146 Society for Psychical Research, 169 solo fide, 34 soul, 5, 8,20, 29, 32–4, 43, 59, 65, 69, 74, 77, 103, 105–6, 155, 158–65, 172 sovereign; sovereignty, 20, 85, 88–94, 97 Spaniards, 87–8 spirit, 34, 63, 68, 85–6, 111, 179, 192, 194, 199 spirituality, 4, 7, 9, 14, 41, 55, 64, 105, 108, 151, 153–5, 159–60, 164, 166, 169, 172 Stahl, Georg Ernst, 105 state, 18–9, 22, 30, 54, 61, 72, 87, 91, 102, 112, 114–20, 133, 144, 204 Stearns, Carol, Stearns, Peter, Steiner, Rudolf, 10, 157–60, 172 “Materialism and Occultism”, 159–60 Theosophy: An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man, 158 Stirner, Max, 143 subconscious, 159, 203 Index suffering, 43, 75, 86, 95–6, 122, 135, 157, 188–9 superstition, 161, 166, 190, 203 surplusage, 92–3 Swift, Jonathan, 9, 107 Gulliver’s Travels, 107 symbolists, 161 Taxil, Léo, 163 Telemachus, 96 temptation, 27, 30, 35, 57, 59, 65, 89, 92 Tenth Commandment, 64 Testament, New, 23 Testament, Old, 23 Theosophy, 5, 10, 157–9, 204 Thomasius, Christian, 9, 102–7, 114 Ausübung der Sittenlehre (Application of Moral Theory), 103–5 Einleitung zur Sittenlehre (Introduction to Moral Theory), 102 thrift, 104, 115, 144, 153 Tickle, Phyllis, I Timothy 6:10, 43–5, 65, 67, 103, 129 tinctura, 39 torment, 20, 47, 65, 67, 95, 106, 131 trade, 22, 24–6, 35, 45, 85, 90, 96, 102, 114–5, 117 transformation, 8, 38, 46, 156, 165, 188, 191–2, 194 transit, 88 transmutation, 38–9, 156, 165, 204 treasure, 35, 37–8, 73, 93, 104, 117, 162, 172, 190 turmoil, 105 Twelve Articles, 28 215 University of Halle, 102, 105, 109–10 utilitarianism, 7, 123, 141–2 utopia, 40, 96, 146–7 Valenze, Deborah, 39, 103 valuation, 5, 25, 133–4, 182 Versailles, 95 Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, 188 violence, 7, 62, 86, 88, 123 vitalism, 108–15, 118, 161 Viterbo, Egidio da, 56 Voltaire, 115–7, 119 wages, 41–2, 107, 121, 133, 135, 139 war, 34, 36, 60, 73, 85–6, 88–9, 92, 96, 115, 157, 189, 193, 203 war, as state of exception, 115 Weber, Max, 55, 67–8, 153, 170, 180, 192 Westcott, Martyn, Winter, Jay, 172 wisdom, 6, 32–3, 43, 60, 62, 108, 182 Wolf Man, 189, 194 Wolff, Christian, 9, 102, 108–15 Jus Gentium Methodo Scientfica Petractatum, 113–4 “The Real Happiness of a People under a Philosophical King”, 112–3 women, 34, 136, 142, 169, 195 work, 15, 36–8, 104, 137, 144, 146–7, 153, 161, 168 Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung, 194 Zinskauf, 23 zombie, 161, 168, 171–2 ... critique Andrea elevated the moral status of the ruler above that of the ruled, arguing, “Private men can attribute their crime of avarice to fear of scarcity, and say that they are afraid they will... individuals and larger social units Da Montepulciano characterized the avaricious in ways that made clear that the one “seized by avarice” had withdrawn into a type of internal exile The avaricious... fair to say that the events of the past five or six years have led to the idea that greed has been a way of framing all sorts of flaws in our system; greed has taken on a power of its own to articulate