Forms of freedom: Towards a psychoanalytic conception of autonomy

Abstract

This paper argues that autonomy is a crucial concept for psychoanalysis that deserves greater attention and closer elaboration. Although there is abundant literature on the complexities of Freud’s psychic determinism and its compatibility (or not) with different notions of freedom, less attention has been paid to psychoanalytic definitions of autonomy, especially in relation to the end(s) of analysis. In what follows I propose a framework for a psychoanalytic conception of autonomy based on an intrapsychic and an intersubjective axis. I argue for the consideration of three kinds of freedom: a freedom “from,” a freedom “to,” and a freedom “through.” Freedom “from” refers to the quest for liberation from intrapsychic constraints that delimit our freedom “to” be agents of change and novelty, subjects capable of degrees of self-creation and self-determination; both kinds of freedom require the common psychic work between patient and therapist, the working-through of the particular elements of the transferential and countertransferential dynamics of the dyad generating a form of freedom “through” one another, unique to psychoanalytic activity.

Key words:

• autonomy
• end(s) of analysis
• forms of freedom
• intrapsychic and intersubjective

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank M. Conci, V. Angel, and G. Maniadakis for their constructive questions and comments on my presentation. I would also like to thank the anonymous critical readers of the first draft, whose excellent comments challenge me to further clarify and sharpen my thoughts.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eleni Filippachi

Eleni Filippachi, PhD, is a psychoanalyst-in-training at the Hellenic Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (HSPP). Prior to her postgraduate studies in clinical psychopathology and psychodynamic psychotherapy she taught history of philosophy at Athens University, the University of Patras, and the Hellenic Open University, Greece. She holds a BA from Princeton University USA, a PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge University, UK, and an MSc in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy from Athens Medical School, Greece. Her current interests focus on borderline psychopathology, psychoanalytic theories of mind–body relations, and theoretical issues on the intersection of philosophy and psychoanalysis.