Chapter 2, Personal Freedom and Others Summary and Analysis

Chapter 2 begins with the observation that man's unhappiness is due to the fact that he was once a child. The child experiences the world as a given, as unchangeable and as imposed upon him from without. Parents are regarded as absolutes that permit freedom in such a world and protect the child, giving him the ability to live out his wants with impunity. Thus the infant's world is a combination of a total lack of control and a totalizing freedom.

Human beings in most civilizations face the same challenges as the child. They live in servitude, with no means to shape their world Consequently, their capacities remain undeveloped, their freedom unrealized, their moral lives unlived. Women are frequently in this situation, as they are subjugated to men in nearly every culture. In most...