The Freedom Responsibility Paradox

Sometime this year I stumbled across this article, where I was introduced to the idea of existential psychotherapy and the psychotherapist Irvin D. Yalom, MD. The article explains that Yalom identified four ultimate concerns that every human must contend with: Death, Freedom, Isolation, and Meaninglessness.

Of course, it caught my attention that freedom made the list.

Here's what I got out of the article: when dealing with the unsettling nature of freedom, we find ourselves grappling with the paradox between freedom and responsibility. That freedom is potential, but that potential must, and will, actualize into something. Even inactivity or indecision is a form of actualization. The reason freedom is unsettling is because however our freedom actualizes in the world is a reflection of us. So we look for ways to not take responsibility for the way our freedom is turning out. To not take responsibility is an actualization also. There is no option to not having an impact on the world. There is no option to not leave some mark behind. The world is changed because we are here. The only path to making our freedom to create or destroy lighter to carry is to take responsibility for it.

While reading all this I chuckled to myself. First, I chuckled because I wrote a sermon for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation on exactly this tension. That Luther was trying to restore the value of freedom to the church so the church could then take more genuine responsibility for its role in the world. It's funny how these conversations just keep coming up. Second, I chuckled because I am an One on the enneagram. My type is called the Perfectionist or the Reformer or the Improver. We build a sense of self, in part, by being very responsible. Responsible to the point of our own diminishment. But when we are healthier and feel secure in the world and in ourselves, we make a move to Seven: the Enthusiast. Sevens love their freedom. Here again, in the symbol of the enneagram, this map of how creative energy coalesces, freedom and responsibility are held together in tension.

I decided that "freedom" was a good choice for my one, guiding word for 2022 because it appears that I had some renegotiation to do between how I take responsibility for things and how I would like to direct the actualization of my freedom.