Abstract

This dissertation explores how Kierkegaard's philosophy of freedom suggests a social science not built upon group norms, but on a more heuristic form of scientific inquiry attuned to the individual. Freedom is an overarching term that encompasses many concepts. All of these concepts, in turn, describe different manifestations of the self. The self is central to Kierkegaard's philosophy of freedom. He describes the self in dynamic and structural terms and by levels of consciousness. Despair is a key concept in this philosophy; it is a deep level of anxiety that signals whether the self is moving forward in freedom, or withdrawing into unfreedom. In this present work, clinical examples are used to elucidate these concepts. Additionally, this author reviewed some of the psychodynamic clinical literature as a way of comparing and contrasting various views on human freedom. Implications for treatment are discussed within the framework of human freedom