''they can't sleep, can't eat, are irritable,'' the straits times daily recently said, diagnosing the city-state's class of stock brokers, real estate agents, office managers and luxury car dealers.

The full brunt of the typhoon that is asia's economic crisis has yet to hit the tiny tropical island, but the prospect of the first recession in 15 years has badly spooked a society who long ago got used to wealth and seemingly endless growth.

Singapore is going through an identity crisis - a condition made worse by a fresh dispute with its neighbours malaysia and indonesia.

Not only psychoanalysts and neurologists are experiencing a boom, but people are also flocking to churches, mosques and pagodas.

''with the crisis, people have come to realise that money is too fleeting and temporal,'' christian pastor chris chia recently told the straits times. Temporal indeed: shares have lost more than half their value within one year and fallen to their lowest level in a decade.

Many of singapore's three million people have never directly experienced an economic crisis. The last one took place as long as 15 years ago. ''people thought it will go up and up forever,'' said one stock broker.

But it is not only investors who have suffered since the region's heady growth years ground to a halt last year. Normal citizens, too, have watched in disbelief as many of the lights have gone out in the once teeming nightlife centre of boat quay.

Bars and restaurants hit by the crisis have closed their doors, and even at the two paulaner micro-breweries, long favourite watering holes with chinese yuppies, the taps have run dry.

Up to three quarters of shopowners in malls and shopping centres have not paid rent in months, according to one industry insider. Landlords have stopped short of throwing out tennants only to avoid the depressing sight of empty display windows.

But, despite the tough times, customer service has grown worse rather than improved.

People seem unprepared for lean years in the 33-year-old republic, whose identity was moulded mainly by material success.

Almost 600,000 people, a fifth of the population, have in recent weeks visited an exhibition entitled ''the singapore story - overcoming the odds''. The multimedia show focuses on the creation epic of singapore, including the separation from malaysia in 1965.

Simmering tensions between the rival nations have again turned into an ugly feud as singapore and kuala lumpur have been bickering over a railway station and border checkpoint on prime singaporean land and about malaysia's supplying water to the city state.

Indonesia's president b.J. Habibie even voiced doubt about the bilateral partnership with singapore when he said, ''a friend in need is a friend indeed. I don't have that feeling (from singapore).''

he than pointed at a map showing singapore, which is dominated by ethnic chinese, and its larger, predominantly islamic, neighbour to the south and said: ''look at that map, all the green is indonesia and that red dot is singapore.''more dpa rk kp1140 mumbai 11 52 Singapore -crisis three last singapore

Mr B j habibied conjured up what has long been a nightmarish vision for singapore - the scenario of only three million singaporeans facing more than 200 million increasingly impoverished muslims in indonesia and malaysia.

Until several weeks ago, singaporeans were fearful of a mass flight of people from neighbouring countries. Now there are worries that singaporeans themselves might leave - raising the spectre of both a capital flight and a brain drain.

After all, overseas chinese, who played a prominent role in forming singapore's culture, have been on the move for centuries, typically searching for ports where they could safely live and conduct their business.

''singapore is a transit point. They won't go back (to china), but they could just as well go on,'' said the far eastern economic revue.

The fractured sense of national identity was, inadvertently, revealed by a recent front page headline in the straits times: ''strong sense of rootedness: eight in ten would rather live here than anywhere else''. Losing the other 20 per cent would be a severe blow for singapore.