Bag Lady Syndrome: women's anxiety about being poor

Cory Doctorow 6:38 am Thu Aug 31, 2006

Bag-lady syndrome is a non-medical term for a common anxiety among women: the fear that they will end up destitute and on the streets. It affects women from all social strata and can be crippling. One psychiatry prof calls it a specialized form of psychotic depression — but it's surely telling that this particular anxiety is common at this moment, when consumer debt is on the rise, crazy "exotic" mortgages are the norm, and scaremongers are telling us that Social Security is doomed.

Bag-lady syndrome plagues, puzzles and, in more extreme cases, paralyzes women who want to get a better grip on their financial lives, according to Olivia Mellan, the author of “The Advisor's Guide to Money Psychology” and a Washington, D.C., therapist who specializes in money psychology. Lily Tomlin, Gloria Steinem, Shirley MacLaine and Katie Couric all admit to having a bag lady in their anxiety closet.

"It cuts across women of all social groups; it's not like wealthy women don't have it," says Mellan. "Heiresses, women who have inherited wealth, have big bag-lady nightmares because they really feel like the money came to them magically and can leave them just as magically."

(via Fark)

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