The Online Library of Liberty

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• Editorial Staff
• Associate Editors
• Editorial
• Bibliographical Essay: Isaac Kramnick, English Middle-class Radicalism In the Eighteenth Century
• I: I Social and Political Thought
• Community, Individuality, and Freedom
• Rousseau's Social Thought
• A Sociological History of Utilitarianism
• Spencer and Comte In American Labor Thought
• Bureaucracy In Weber & Kafka
• Bergson's Political Doctrines
• Oakeshott's Political Theory
• Oakeshott's Political Philosophy
• Undermocratic Liberal Republicans
• Wilkes and Radical Politics
• Late Liberal Imperialism
• Kant and Reason In Politics
• II: Education, Politics, and Values
• Schools and Political Socialization
• Schooling For Imperialism
• The Political Economy of Public Schooling
• Federal Education Policy
• The Problems of Federal Education
• William James As Individualist
• Existential and Phenomenological Education
• Early Federal Educational Policy
• Education, Labor Markets, & Controlled Youth
• Government Control of Universities
• III: Economic Thought and Values
• Business and Legal History
• Schumpeter's Economic Theories
• Menger and Entrepreneurship
• Saint-simonian Economic Ideas
• The Free Market & the Third World
• Democratic Capitalism, Justice, & Religion
• Property, Law, and Economics
• The Economic Analysis of Law Vs. Values
• IV: Foreign Policy and Ideology
• The Attractiveness of War
• Walzer On International Morality
• Eduard Bernstein and Imperialism
• Roosevelt Vs. His War Critics
• American Preconceptions of Japan
• The Marshall Plan and Russia
• V: Self-knowledge, Autonomy, and Liberty
• The Self In Political Thought
• Autonomy, Self, and Will Power
• Self-knowledge: Goethe, Kant, and Hegel
• The Egoist As a “psychopath”
• The History of Social Psychology
• Psychology, Self, and Society
• Free Will, Responsibility, and Motivation
• Free Will, Purpose, and Responsibility
• Political “groupthink” and Reality
• Personal Freedom and Autonomy
• Research Fields
• Economics
• Education
• History
• Philosophy
• Political Philosophy
• Psychology
• Sociology

Personal Freedom and Autonomy

Peter R. Breggin

The author provides an outline for a libertarian psychology: “An analysis of human conduct consistent with the principles of maximum personal freedom.” The concept of voluntary exchange is fundamental to such a psychological system. Successful personal relationships must be freely chosen, honest, and non-manipulative.

Two principles of libertarian psychology are personal sovereignty and personal freedom. Personal sovereignty involves subjective freedom, the right to think, feel, and choose as one pleases. It carries the obligation to respect the sovereignty of others. Personal freedom is the right to be free of restraints within the external world. There is a right to self-defense to protect both personal sovereignty and personal freedom.

If emotions such as guilt, shame, or anxiety contribute to determining how a person acts within a relationship, it cannot be said to be voluntary. Such emotions constitute a form of self-intimidation. Aside from responsibilities to children, an individual is free to leave any personal relationship for any subjective reason which is sufficiently compelling.

The author maintains that “a loving attitude toward people is essential to personal happiness” and that love can only be maintained in relationships that are voluntary. Love should not be equated with an unfree relationship. The greatest challenge in a close personal relationship is to grant the partner total freedom. “Friends and lovers are people. . . whose self interests are mutual, even at times identical.”

Research Fields