TY  - GEN
AU  - Schwartz, Barry
AU  - Schwartz, Barry
LA  - eng
CN  - ENP-4191270c-912e-401a-b983-15c59f677700
TI  - Self-determination: the tyranny of freedom
PY  - 2000
AB  - Americans now live in a time and a place in which freedom and autonomy are valued above all else and in which expanded opportunities for self-determination are regarded as a sign of the psychological well-being of individuals and the moral well-being of the culture. This article argues that freedom, autonomy, and self-determination can become excessive, and that when that happens, freedom can be experienced as a kind of tyranny. The article further argues that unduly influenced by the ideology of economics and rational-choice theory, modern American society has created an excess of freedom, with resulting increases in people’s dissatisfaction with their lives and in clinical depression. One significant task for a future psychology of optimal functioning is to deemphasize individual freedom and to determine which cultural constraints are necessary for people to live meaningful and satisfying lives.
ER  -