“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom assumes responsibility and most people are afraid of that responsibility” By Sigmund Freud
There’s an assumption here that freedom cannot exist without responsibility. I wonder if this is true in all cases. I am currently unable to think os a single freedom-desire where I would not still have some responsibility to myself or others. So, let’s address this with an acceptance of the assumption. Well, perhaps death is the ultimate freedom from all of life’s responsibilities, but we want to live then freedom isn’t really what we want, is it?
So, we want responsibility. Responsibility brings the need to take action. Actions bring opportunities to succeed, fail, and learn. While I occasionally feel tired and wish to just get off the treadmill, it is always momentary. I am compelled to study, read, watch, listen, and experience more everyday! The real freedom I want is the freedom from financial worry. I would gladly spend my life in intellectual, spiritual, and creative explorations, but for the real need to finance these pursuits. That’s why I daydream about lotteries so much.
Perhaps I am not afraid of freedom or responsibility as much as I am wanting different responsibilities and freedoms that respond more to who I believe I am and want to be.
Of course this quote is taken out of a much greater and much longer conversation with Freud. His psychoanalysis process was one that took years to find truths for his patients. It’s the process that was important, with incremental successes. The end of the treatment would be an undesirable freedom from growth. The pleasurable responsibility of incremental successes would stop. It would be a little death. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that.
