Turkish singer Ebru Gündəş has sparked debate after wearing a watch worth 7.5 million Turkish lira (about $150,000). Spending on an accessory an amount that many people work for years to earn in order to buy a home appears unimaginable at first glance.
What spiritual and psychological reasons drive people to spend so much money?
Speaking to Globalinfo.az, Aposh Valiyev, a leading researcher at the Folklore Institute of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and a Doctor of Philosophy in Philology, said that buying a watch worth as much as a house or a bag worth as much as a car is not simply about having an abundance of money:
“It is also driven by a need for self-affirmation and to feel valuable. Some people try to prove to themselves and those around them that they are successful, prestigious, different and superior through expensive items. In fact, they sometimes do not buy a watch; they buy the status, attention and respect they believe that watch will bring them. This behaviour may stem from material deprivation experienced in childhood, having once felt inferior to others, social comparison and an inner sense of incompleteness. In a sense, a person tries to compensate today for past deprivation with expensive items.”
Aposh Valiyev
The expert said not every expensive purchase is rooted in a psychological problem:
“Some people genuinely do it for pleasure and interest. But one point is worth considering. Would a person still buy that watch if they knew no one would see it, no one would know its price and no one’s attitude towards them would change because of it? Let us not forget that expensive items do not earn a person genuine respect. A person earns respect not through the watch on their wrist or the brand they wear, but through their behaviour, speech, conduct, thinking and attitude towards others. The price of an item does not increase a person’s worth. True value should lie not in the things a person owns, but in the person themselves.”
Laman Imran
Globalinfo.az
