O dinheiro e as relações de poder na psicoterapia

Abstract

This paper is a theoretical essay on power dynamics in the therapist-client relationship, organized around the signifier “money,” understood not merely as an economic object but as a symbolically loaded and multifaceted element — associated with ambition, autonomy, control, dependence, envy, freedom, loss, prestige, security, value, among other meanings. Economic issues, often silenced in clinical practice, are investigated to understand how the financial dimension affects the therapeutic bond. The research is based on a literature review spanning the past five decades, systematizing theories, methodologies, and empirical evidence, and discussing practical and training implications. The corpus was defined from seminal texts selected for thematic relevance and expanded through a retrospective snowball method. The findings indicate that the literature highlights the ways in which money significantly impacts on the structuring of therapeutic relationships, influencing perceptions of treatment value, power dynamics, and ethical dilemmas in clinical practice. Although often treated as a taboo, the theme has been discussed with relative consistency, with four relatively recent periods of intense scholarly production standing out. It is concluded that money is not strictly absent from clinical discourse, but its presence and meaning depend on the theoretical, institutional, and relational configurations involved. The study has contributed to a critical understanding of the role of money in psychotherapy and offers subsidies for a more conscious and ethical clinical practice