“You had almost nothing, but there was a war, and you were happy. We have a lot of things, we don’t need and we are unhappy,” the grandson said something like this, looking at his grandmother, who was escaping her mind. He lay on her lap and she blew out cigarette smoke. “We were young, we survived... It was already a lot,” the woman said. Look! In the process of growing up, we form an assessment of ourselves and our capabilities, looking around. Large corporations take advantage of this, packaging and offering us “happiness.” Advertising, open and secret, influences us, turning us into consumers of unnecessary things. Paul realizes his dependence on purchases when Tony reveals data to a potential buyer of their program. Information about Paul’s preferences was carefully collected by artificial intelligence, offering the man to buy essentially unnecessary goods. Enraged, Paul offers a bet to his parents' friend and adopted son! For a hundred days, the men give up their belongings. Naked on the first day, they will be able to pick up just one needed product from the warehouse. Whoever fails will lose huge amounts of money. During the dispute, Paul visits his grandmother, who survived the Second World War and the fall of the Berlin Wall. She tells him: “Happiness is like water, Paul: if you want to keep it, you will run around with clenched fists all your life.” Meanwhile, Tony meets a girl hiding a secret. He falls in love with her. He wants to try to build something more with her than just sex. He doesn’t know that she has a large loan debt, that she stole money from family and friends, that she is a shopaholic. “If I buy things to be happy,” Paul will tell her, “what does that mean?” “That you are unhappy,” Tony’s girl will answer. She wouldn’t know, as a person trying to “plug a huge hole in her soul” (her words) with purchases - purchases - purchases. “If all things disappear, what will be left of me”? - she will ask... In the character of Tony we see a vivid example of prevailing inadequate self-esteem: “I am a person worthy of love (respect) when I am the best.” The metaphor of his behavior in the film is the fairy tale about the hare and the hedgehog. Remember where the animals argued about running speed. But the hedgehog turned out to be more cunning and, with the help of his family, deceived the bunny. Kosoi ran alone, trying to be better, to be first. The hedgehog swapped places with his relatives and “arrived” at the finish line earlier. In one of the dialogues, Tony will tell Paul that he, like a hare, always tried to prove his superiority, and Paul did not need to try, he was already at the finish line. He had a family, and Tony was adopted. The 2018 German comedy-drama film “100 Things and Nothing Extra” was directed by Florian David Fitz. It is about how large corporations manipulate us, convincing us of the need to buy unnecessary things - to buy “happiness”. It's about friendship and love. It's about shopaholics and deception. It’s about the fact that it’s important for a person to accept his imperfections. The film is about how the belief is imposed on us: “To be a happy person, you need to buy this, this, this, this, this...” And we begin to evaluate ourselves through the prism of things: cars, furniture, real estate, sneakers, phones... We don’t see people behind the attributes and packaging. And we often don’t see ourselves... Is this about adequate self-esteem? Shopaholism is one of the crooked ways to solve your emotional problems. It’s as if an expensive foundation only masks, sometimes driving you into debt. Doesn't resolve issues. Do you agree? With respect to you, practicing psychologist, member of the ACPP, author of books Peter Galigarov Book “Confidence from the subconscious (MAK book)” - read a free fragment