Abstract

Free will is discussed from a feminist/social constructionist perspective, especially in relationship to therapy. According to many psychological studies, women are perceived as less likely to exercise their free will and to suffer serious psychological consequences. Feminist critiques challenge this argument and the underlying liberal humanist image of the fully human being as an individual who is endowed with free will. It is stressed that within the binary construction of gender difference, the qualities associated with the free willed individual are identical with those associated with men; women become the inferior other. An alternative construction of human ideal is advocated: relational selves. This repositioning dislocates other formulations, including free will, and changes the notion of therapy into a relational activity, suggesting that it may be as liberating to men as to women. 2012 APA, all rights reserved)