Others think of it as something owing to another, going beyond the concept of just a financial transaction. So, claiming that someone is “in your debt”, a feeling of great gratitude or atonement that overflows to giving of service. The debtor could also be demanding an apology.
You could even reframe the word debt – as an obligation, an owing back, being duty-bound.
Debt can have a feeling of gratitude, guilt or resentment underlying. It may even have all of the above. Regardless, the debt no longer becomes a straight forward transaction between two parties, but becomes injected with emotions and from that overflows different and often dysfunctional behaviours.