Very often in conversations with clients and lectures with the students we touch on the topic of human freedom...Probably each of us before (sometimes even too much) or too late (too too) thinks about his freedom. What it means to be free from the psychological point of view and from the point of view of the layman? It is this theme I decided to dedicate my last post.

Freedom in the popular understanding often associated with the fact that if I'm free I do what I want. And everything seems to be simple and clear, but from a psychological point of view, even in this short, the definition of freedom the average person lies a lot of "gotchas." First, not every one of us knows exactly what he wants, and especially how and when. And in this case, it is difficult to do what you want...

second, if I do what I want and another a free man does what he wants, who will regulate our crossing and who will be responsible for doing what I want? Thirdly, am I really ready to do what I want and whether I feel free? In General, a lot of questions, and the answers often lie beyond the narrow-minded understanding.

Therefore, I propose to deal with the scientific point of view in matters of human freedom. By the way, this is the topic of many studies, articles and even entire books, not only in the field of psychology and psychotherapy, but also in cultural studies, religious studies and philosophy. The topic is certainly not new, but interest in it has not waned with time. The theme of human freedom is the most thoroughly studied representatives of the existential trends in psychology and psychotherapy. Has the same direction and in philosophy. From their point of view, human freedom is a right decision and choices made in accordance with the internal attitudes, needs and goals of the person. Naturally, these internal settings, needs and goals each of us are purely individual and can vary greatly in different people. Therefore, freedom is individual. You can also say that we are all free in completely different ways.

Freedom of decision-making and implementation of choice also implies the presence of a person of responsibility as the ability to understand the consequences of their decisions and choices. To be responsible means willingly and knowingly be the cause of occurrence of the relationships, situations, States, not only in their own lives, but the lives of others. In this postulate lies the answer to the now common assertion that each person is responsible for everything that happens to him in life.

In one of the books I. aloma is an example on this subject: people in the evening go to a casino and loses a large sum of money. Naturally, he blames (i.e., places the responsibility) for what happened on the leadership of the casino, gamblers and charlatans, had set him up and made bankrupt. But, in fact, the responsibility for what happened lies entirely on the man: he could decide not to visit the casino and thus would have saved my money.

it is Clear that we are not always able to be or not to be the cause of the events and situations of our lives, because it can interfere with other people, natural disasters, political and social phenomena, but for their own behavior, their own decisions or lack of them are responsible only to ourselves. For each of us is very important to understand where it begins and ends with our personal responsibility, and only if we can find them their freedom.

we should Not forget about the "inner" human freedom as freedom from socially perpetuated stereotypes, stupid rules (this does not apply to laws, of course), fear, and destructive attachments (signs, patterns of thinking, the objects of addiction, such as alcohol or computer games), mystical visions and all that narrows our worldview.

Internally free man can survive in any conditions and be happy! I recommend reading on this subject is the book by V. Frankl, "the Psychologist in the concentration camp." The inner freedom involves a person's awareness of his destiny, life path and meaning in which he lives. I wish all the readers to gain their freedom through taking responsibility for their lives and to enjoy the right of decision-making and implementation of elections based on personal needs, capabilities, goals and meanings!!! But if there are problems, come chat with me.