Abstract
Americans now live in a time and a place in which freedom and autonomy are valued above all else and in which expanded opportunities for self-determination are regarded as a sign of the psychological well-being of individuals and the moral well-being of the culture. This article argues that freedom, autonomy, and self-determination can become excessive, and that when that happens, freedom can be experienced as a kind of tyranny. The article further argues that unduly influenced by the ideology of economics and rational-choice theory, modern American society has created an excess of freedom, with resulting increases in people's dissatisfaction with their lives and in clinical depression. One significant task for a future psychology of optimal functioning is to deemphasize individual freedom and to determine which cultural constraints are necessary for people to live meaningful and satisfying lives.
Keywords
PsychologySocial psychology
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Publication Info
- Year
- 2000
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 55
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 79-88
- Citations
- 811
- Access
- Closed
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Cite This
Barry Schwartz
(2000).
Self-determination: The tyranny of freedom..
American Psychologist
, 55
(1)
, 79-88.
https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.79
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.79