(a) and (b) Although everyone needs to feel that “I am I,” this is not easy to achieve. Life has many dangers, such as accidents, earthquakes, fl oods, illness, crime, and death. So it is tempting to...

(a) and (b) Although everyone needs to feel that “I am I,” this is not easy to achieve. Life has many dangers, such as accidents, earthquakes, fl oods, illness, crime, and death. So it is tempting to abandon our desire for independence and identity, escape from the freedom to make our own choices, and seek out a powerful protector who will provide security by telling us what to do. (c) If we only had organic drives, we would be more like lower organisms whose behavior is determined by innate instincts. Without reason, self-awareness, and imagination, there would be fewer (or perhaps even no) choices for us to make, and little or no freedom from which to escape. (d) Freedom is frightening to this person because he is too weak and confl icted to take advantage of it. He has repressed his real self so well that he usually does not know what he wants, and freedom is a threatening reminder of this painful situation. So he would rather not be free, and he unconsciously creates inner commands for himself that make it seem as though he has no free choice. (Other ways of escaping from freedom that he might have chosen, but did not, include becoming a conformist or someone who blindly follows the orders of a dictator or religious zealot.)