Possession of Extended Self

To have is to be- Possession of extended self

Shopping is not merely the acquisition of things: it is the buying of Identity (Clammer, 1992).

Sartre (1998) maintains that ‘being’ and ‘having’ are intimately intertwined. Ontologically, without ‘having’, ‘being’ cannot be realized. He asserts, “The bond of possession is an internal bond of being”. Basically, Sartre states we come to know who we are through what we possess. We acquire, create, sustain and present a sense of existential self by observing our possessions. The notion of ‘to have is to be’ is also affirmed by Belk (1988) and Dittmar (1992). Exploring the formula, “I am = what I have and what I consume.” Fromm, (1976) and Dittmar (1992) elaborates:

Material possessions have socially constituted meanings… this symbolic dimension of material objects plays an important role for the owner’s identity. …This suggests that material social reality in an integral, pervasive aspect of everyday social life, of constructing others and ourselves.

Moreover, Belk (1988), examines the relationship between ‘having and ‘being’ by approaching possessions as the extended self.

“A man’s Me is the sum total of all that he can call his, not only his body and his physic powers, but his clothes and his house, his wife and children, his ancestors and friends, his reputation and works, his lands and horses, and yachts and bank account.” P:139

Conceivably, we put together whatever we perceive as ‘ours’ into our selves. Sartre (1998), explains things and people become a part of our extended self if we hold a sense that we have created, controlled or known them. Indeed, to be able to do so, we need to invest our energy, power, effort, time, and attention in it; and the self has given this energy, as a result, the self symbolically extends into possessions