In Western culture, we usually use autonomy to measure the level of freedom we have. The more autonomous a person is the more freedom we assume the person experiences. As such, autonomy is the very core of freedom.
The trend of focusing on the self started in the West about 100 years ago with the rise of psychoanalysis; not only has it been growing since, it is also spreading to other cultures, along with other Western concepts rapidly via films, advertising, personal development books and self-expression workshops to name a few vehicles.
As much as autonomy is doing a great deal of good, the more we move in the direction of autonomy the higher the cost individual freedom can have. The cost of this unrelenting pursuit of autonomy is isolation and loss of meaning.
One of the most obvious sources of meaning in life is the love and acceptance we feel for and by others. The better integrated we are in our community, in our family and with friends and the more significant the role we play in other people’s lives, the easier it is to overcome anxiety, depression, despair and pointlessness.
More and more research (e.g. Peter Levine, Allan Schore and Dan Siegel) demonstrates that a relationship is a physiological event that affects our brain just as potently as medication, drugs or alcohol.
While it is important to cultivate autonomy and freedom, it is equally important to cultivate a sense of belonging and community because our mental and physical health seem to lie in the balance between the two.
