Mastering the Moneyed Mind, Volume I

Book excerpt: This book invites readers to consider, for themselves, stories of mass mind-control perpetrated by marketing mavens who utilize (and perhaps manipulate) insights from behavioral psychology to generate rank materialism, manifested in ever-increasing consumption, palatable to the public. The Causes, Culprits, and Context of Our Money Troubles is the first book in a series about the psychology of money by Dr. Christopher Bayer, the Wall Street Psychologist. Informed by more than 30 years of research in the areas of economics/finance and psychology, Dr. Bayer explores the history of our relationship with money—specifically the role morality, and the concept of “virtue,” has played in that history, and the wealth versus money dichotomy. Filled with tales and exemplifications, the book introduces readers, pseudonymously, to sample patients of money -mind imbalances, such as the “11 million-dollar man” who becomes corrupted by money's influence, that unbalances their internal gyroscope (internal moral compass). It draws readers to examine past- and present-day corruptions derived from money's influence and compels them to examine concepts and theories from great economists of yore (e.g., Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and J.M. Keynes) to create a theoretical foundation for what the author calls a Gyroscope methodology. As a foundational tool in the series, this book invites readers to consider, for themselves, stories of mass mind-control perpetrated by marketing mavens who utilize (and perhaps manipulate) insights from behavioral psychology to generate rank materialism, manifested in ever-increasing consumption, palatable to the public.