Liberation from self

by Bernard Berofsky

This is the most detailed, sophisticated, and comprehensive treatment of autonomy currently available. Moreover it argues for a quite different conception of autonomy from that found in the philosophical literature. Professor Berofsky claims that the idea of autonomy as origination in the self is a seductive but ultimately illusory one. The only serious way of approaching the subject is to pay due attention to psychology and its emphasis on liberation from the disabling effects of physiological and psychological afflictions. A sustained critique of concepts such as moral autonomy, self-realization, ideal autonomy, and identification is offered. The author replaces these with an alternative model that focuses on vital, competent, and unencumbered engagement in the world.