The Golden Ghetto: The Psychology of Affluence [Hardcover]

Jessie H. O'Neill (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0967855403 | ISBN-13: 978-0967855400 | Publication Date: December 1997

In The Golden Ghetto, Jessie H. O’Neill, granddaughter of Charles Erwin Wilson, one-time president of General Motors, provides a penetrating look at why attaining wealth proves to be a hollow achievement for many. A psychotherapist, O’Neill has based her professional practice on understanding and treating the problems of those who have amassed great wealth, and her book is both a description of their lives and an analysis of and prescription for the problems they’ve had to face.

While O’Neill’s main focus is on the very rich, the lessons to be learned from their lives have a far broader application. The Golden Ghetto is in fact inhabited by millions of Americans, rich and poor alike, who embrace and endlessly pursue the fantasy that more is better, while allowing all that is truly worthwhile – loving relationships, the selfless giving of oneself, and spiritual growth – to fall by the wayside.

The The Golden Ghetto shows us how to right our own relationship with money, and offers insightful suggestions for repairing the psychological and cultural damage our misguided beliefs about money, power, and happiness have caused.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Jessie O'Neill's story helps give voice to hte pain and isolation that wealth can bring, as well as the opportunity for the personal and spiritual growth it can provide." -- Tian Dayton, Ph.D, author

About the Author

The Affluenza Project was founded by Jessie H. O'Neill in 1997 in response to the enthusiastic public acclaim received after the publication of her book, The Golden Ghetto: The Psychology of Affluence. O’Neill is internationally renowned as a wealth expert and authority on the psychology of money and wealth and how it affects our relationships. She is a prominent key note speaker, professional business consultant and certified psychotherapist. The Affluenza Project offers a wide variety of services to heighten public awareness and promote healing of affluenza including: individual and group therapy; phone consultations, family interventions; seminars; corporate consulting; legal/litigation support; and keynote speeches. O’Neill is the granddaughter of Charles Erwin Wilson, past president of General Motors, and Secretary of Defense under Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 267 pages
• Publisher: Affluenza Project (December 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967855403
• ISBN-13: 978-0967855400
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #380,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Challenges stereotypes..., August 6, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Golden Ghetto: The Psychology of Affluence (Hardcover)

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.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Economic Stress Could Cause "Affluenza" Epidemic!, December 8, 1997

By 

T. Veale (WI - USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Golden Ghetto: The Psychology of Affluence (Hardcover)

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.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An eye-opening book..., April 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Golden Ghetto: The Psychology of Affluence (Hardcover)

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.