By Ned Hallowell, MD – August 1, 2015

The power that money exerts on the human psyche is as fascinating a topic as there is in psychology, and yet it is rarely discussed.

Most writing about money delves into how to budget it, make more of it, protect it, or bequeath it. But what about the relationship between money and the mind?

The psychological power of money can lead to tragedy or triumph, depending on how a person deals with the emotional forces at work. Some people go through life with a sane and balanced attitude toward money, seeing it as a necessity for a decent life and as a tool for great good. But many others go through life internally conflicted by their feelings around money, behaving irrationally and often self-destructively, utterly unaware of what they are doing to themselves and others.

A haunting parable captures what can happen. It has been retold in modern times by both Somerset Maugham and John O’Hara, but its original version dates back over 1,500 years to the Babylonian Talmud. Here’s my retelling of it:

One day, a merchant in Baghdad sends his servant to the marketplace for provisions. When the servant returns, he has no provisions and he is trembling, his face white with fear. He tells his master that in the marketplace he was jostled by a woman whom he immediately recognized to be Death. When their eyes met, Death made what the servant took to be a menacing gesture directed precisely at him.

Panicked, certain that his life is in imminent danger, the servant begs permission to borrow his master’s horse so that he might escape Death. When the merchant agrees, the servant falls to his knees and kisses his master’s feet in gratitude, then mounts the horse and flees as fast as the horse can gallop to the town of Samarra, a distance of 75 miles. Since Death is in Baghdad, the servant believes he will be safe in Samarra, many miles away.

After bidding his servant farewell, the merchant is curious so he goes to the marketplace himself to see what his servant might have seen. Once there he, too, espies Death in the crowd, just as his servant had. A bold man, he approaches Her and asks why She made a menacing gesture toward his servant. Death replies, “That was not a menacing gesture, sir; it was merely a start of surprise. I was astonished to see your man here in Baghdad, because I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.”

Money sends legions of otherwise intelligent people galloping off to Samara, driven by the primitive, unrecognized feelings money so often brings forth.