Practical Dimensions of Personal Freedom: Between Self-Alienation and Authenticity

The relevance of the issue of personal freedom is driven by a systemic crisis of human existence, where globalization, digital, and sociocultural transformations intensify pressure on individual autonomy. Modern society creates soft mechanisms of discipline and control that are subtly internalized by individuals, leading to their self-alienation. The aim of the study is to conceptualize freedom as a set of practices directed toward escaping the influence of the sociocultural environment, overcoming self-alienation, and unfolding personal potential in an authentic mode of being. The methodological framework is grounded in M. Foucault’s analysis of disciplinary power, H. Marcuse’s ideas on the surplus-repression of instincts in society, P. Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, and E. Fromm’s distinction between «freedom to» and «freedom from». M. Heidegger’s concept of existentials is heuristically valuable for differentiating between the inauthentic and authentic modes of existence, providing an ontological framework where the authentic dimension of Dasein is correlated with the actualization of personhood. As a result of the study, it was revealed that sociocultural practices root the individual in the system as a mechanism of escape from negative «freedom from»: fleeing the disorientation caused by the loss of organic connection with nature, human beings submit to the system, which leads to their self-alienation. In contrast, existential practices rely on positive «freedom to» and overcome this alienation through spontaneous creative activity. In line with M. Heidegger’s ontology, they enable the individual to overcome the dominance of the system, shifting their mode of being from inauthenticity to authenticity. Existential practices are conditioned by transformative reflection and the reinterpretation of behavioral patterns. It is hypothesized that, as practices of self-creation, existential practices are capable of exerting a reverse transformational impact on sociocultural conditions, thereby enabling the achievement of positive freedom at the systemic level as well.