ABSTRACT
In decentring the subject and postulating that individual freedom is contingent upon internal domination, Freud elaborated on a metaphor of the mind which Isaiah Berlin has vigorously condemned for providing a dangerous political momentum. According to Berlin there are two basic metaphors — he calls them concepts — of freedom which guide political behaviour. Berlin acknowledges that the positive notion of freedom started as an ideal of self-direction which implied the rule of a 'higher' self over a 'lower' self. Berlin opposes a liberal, 'negative' concept of 'freedom from' to the positive one. Freud's concept of positive freedom as contingent on the ego's benevolent tyranny, reinforces the vision of the individual as living in conflict with social norms and emphasizes autonomous choices. In contrast to Berlin, Freud understood freedom as a good to be acquired by an initially unfree, fragmented and irrational individual.
