Golden Ghetto: Psychology of Affluence

Feel mad when your numbers do not pop in a multi-million dollar lottery? Shredding the ticket to bits like an overdue bill. Does envy creep through your gut while glimpsing that cherry red Porsche purring effortlessly by your 8 year old Toyota? Rationalizing, well, at least yours is paid for. Well, don't. In "The Golden Ghetto", we get shocking glimpses into lives of some of the rich and famous which were left on the cutting room floor with Robin Leach. Apparently it is not all champagne wishes and caviar dreams.Authoress, Jessie H. O'Neill, knows of what she writes. Her father was a workaholic with no time for his family. Resulting in a common money disease referred to as affluenza. The disease of money. Can you imagine? Wealth CAN be a disease causing specific dysfunctions of those feeling entitlement, it is theirs for the asking, not earning, coveting the guilt that lies therein.In this book, which is provocatively written, we become privy to Ms. O'Neill's personal story. She is the grandaughter to Charles Wilson. I had never heard of him and was surprised to learn he was past president of General Motors and served as Secretary of State to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The manner in which she reveals family secrets of disorders--alcoholism, drug abuse, manic-depression, suicides, lack of fulfillment leading to wanton irresponsible behavior, makes the Kennedy family look *curse*-less.As I read her story and others she divuldged, newsworthy names began to surface. Kurt Cobain, Elvis, JFK, Jr., Princess Diana, Freddie Prinze, Sonny Bono, Hugh Grant, Boy George--such odd behaviors and risks from people we seem to think, have or had it all. How could they be unhappy? How could they take such risks? The very fact that today we have almost one new millionaire every 63 seconds--usually due to tech stocks and or options. And, the written information regarding lottery winners and their usual fall from grace within a years time of sudden wealth, makes this well written book extremely timely.I enjoyed this psychological profile of a disease which has no immunization. It does have a cure. Possibly why the authoress is a therapist herself. Highly recommended for medical or feel better "I am not rich" reading.--CDS--

I know what you're thinking... People who inherit money should just shut up and be thankful. But the author of the "Golden Ghetto" acknowledges what almost no other American is brave or smart enought to admit: inheriting a fortune often brings with it some negative side-effects. O'Neill brings to light the fact that money can isolate people, especially children, from their peers; can magnify problems that already exist within a family; can provide the means to keep problems of addiction "hush hush" and therefore lessen the likelihood of treatment. She does not diminish the fact that wealth brings priviledge and power, but demonstrates that happiness is not as inextricably linked to money as our culture would wish us to believe.

The author describes the debilitating impact that 'unearned' inherited wealth has had on both her own and interviewees lives in terms that have opened my eyes about how a similar set of circumstances has confused and depressed me. I have been trying to find ideas for therapy to deal with chronic depression and this book addresses my situation more directly than any I have come across. She points out that inheritors of sudden wealth have a significant challenge in developing and maintaining strong senses of self-worth, self-respect and self-confidence, especially when the wealth is handed over at an age before the young adult has proved that he or she can 'make it on their own'. While reading the book, I gained a lot by answering some of the most pertinent questions listed in the Appendix, which enabled me to create a mini-autobiography and assessment of my own relationship to money and the roles it has played in my life to date. This book, together with practical exercises in "Undoing Depression", by Richard O'Connor, have helped me more than several different therapists in my effort to make sense of how money has impacted my life in a 'not always helpful' way. Thank you , Ms. O'Neill.

Rich kids, like poor kids, can't choose the families into which they born. We can all, however, change how we feel about our own relationship to money. Ms. O'Neill explains these facts in a book that has much to say in a era in which the number of millionaires is increasing and those at the bottom of the economy increasingly hope to escape their circumstances by winning the lottery or a television game show. While personal stories and appeals to spirituality are not everyone's cup of tea, Ms. O'Neill's account of her own affluent upbringing and the role that spirituality can play in overcoming affluenza--truly a disease of the soul-- is compelling rather than cloying. This book is well worth reading by anyone seeking the full picture of how people relate to money.

Her unique perspective on the "American Dream" makes this book unusually insightful. If we feel uncomfortable with another person's wealth, think how we make them feel! Ms. O'Neill takes a close look at the personality of workaholics and other compulsive behaviors and how they affect spouses, offspring, and coworkers. She then examines how the "success" of the workaholic often misleads others to think that money solves all problems and brings happiness. You will be surprised by your own thoughts regarding the wealthy and their descendents. I hope you will be equally surprised by the envy, hate and manipulation by those who choose to get close to wealthy people. The problems related to wealth she names "Affluenza". Once you understand it, you'll begin to see signs of it in many unexpected places. "Affluenza" affects rich, middle class and poor, each in its own way. This is one of two books on psychology that I recommend the investor read. It is important to know that much of investors' success is related to understanding the market's psychology. This includes understanding the individual participants' minds as well.