Escaping Freedom, 85 Years On

Freedom requires breaking primary ties and brings responsibility for actions and their consequences, which can produce insecurity and isolation. When people comply with expectations, they may convince themselves they are not truly free, thereby avoiding responsibility. Freedom can therefore feel like a burden rather than a simple liberation. Another way to reduce anxiety and isolation involves seeking belonging and security, which can counterbalance the costs of independence. The tension between freedom and belonging remains relevant because social and political conditions that shaped earlier theories continue to resemble contemporary circumstances.

"In Escape from Freedom, published in 1941 in the US, Erich Fromm explored the tension between our need to be free and independent and our need for belonging and security [1] In the book, he distinguishes between negative freedom, or freedom from . , and positive freedom, or freedom to , the latter of which enables us to fully develop our potential as individuals. Now, 85 years on , it is a good time to revisit it, not so much for the psychoanalytic elements of the theory put forward, as for its insights into the socio-political circumstances of the time of its writing which in many ways parallel our own historical moment."

"At the very beginning of our quest for freedom, we are required to break from what Fromm terms our primary ties: our bonds with family and other loved ones. Indeed, freedom can quickly become a burden - with it comes responsibility, insecurity, and isolation. When we are free to act, we are responsible for our actions and their consequences, which raises new questions for us of how to act. In contrast, when we do what we are told - or do that which is required or expected of us - we can try to convince ourselves that we are not actually free to act and that, therefore, we do not bear responsibility for our actions and their consequences."

"Freedom can quickly become a burden - with it comes responsibility, insecurity, and isolation."

"Thankfully, Fromm points to another way to overcome anxiety and isolation. The only productive way in which individual"

Read at The Philosopher