A psychoanalytic model for human freedom and rationality.

The nature and scope of freedom and rationality in man are explored in light of the problems posed by a deterministic framework for understanding and explaining human though, feeling, and behavior. It is argued that the sort of explanation afforded by a psychodynamic theory is fully compatible with attributing freedom and rationality to persons. In particular, psychoanalytic theory is able to account for the existence of causal laws governing all aspects of human behavior, while providing a schema by which we can distinguish rational from irrational behavior, and free acts from those that are unfree.