New book ‘Psychology of Liberty’ examines freedom as allowing humans to be what they were intended to be

LAWRENCE — A new book from a University of Kansas education scholar explores history, cultural anthropology, creativity, family studies, evolutionary studies end education to suggest a new conception of freedom.

Barbara Kerr, Williamson Family Distinguished Professor of Counseling Psychology in KU’s School of Education & Human Sciences, is the author of “The Psychology of Liberty: Reclaiming Everyday Freedom.” It is forthcoming from Springer Nature Switzerland.

“The synthesis came by redefining the notion of freedom,” Kerr said of the book’s melding of disciplines. “We’ve been told it means free markets, small government, or others define it by strength. I decided to define it by when people exist in a state where they don’t have to spend most of their time working for safety and food. It turns out for 200,000 years, the majority of our existence, people spent large amounts of time just talking and playing, especially with children. We also spent lots of time making things that made us happy, like meals or arts or toys, for example.”

Kerr spent seven years working on the book. In her previous research into creative young people and happy families, she found the most creative were provided autonomy and that happy families supported each other, had few restrictive rules and gave each other the freedom to try new things with the understanding they had a loving home to return to if things do not work out. In 2016, her research in creativity took her to Iceland to examine why such a small, geographically isolated island nation was one of the most creative places on Earth, garnering patents, arts, music, entrepreneurship and more per capita at some of the highest rates anywhere.

In the book’s introduction, Kerr outlines how her previous lines of research and examination of fields including anthropology, history, religion and economics led to her conception of the psychology of liberty. The COVID-19 pandemic illustrated a stark divide. People across the world had to struggle with lost sources of income, isolation and threats to health, among other stressors. Those who were economically secure turned to their families and became creative, making family TikTok dances, creating art and music, telling stories, cooking elaborate meals and generally doing the things happy, creative societies have done for centuries, she writes.

“The condition of liberty is literally our birthright and our inheritance from our ancestry. I wrote this book because I want to get at the root of how we feel and what we do when we are free to be humans living the kind of life we evolved to live. I want to find out why some people enjoy taking away other people’s freedom. I want to discover how to reclaim the liberty that we have lost,” Kerr writes in the introduction.

“The Psychology of Liberty” further examines how humans lived as hunters and gatherers, and the traits humans evolved to cherish including gossiping, storytelling, playing — especially with children — and creating things that brought people and their loved ones joy. Kerr outlines how humans have long altered their consciousness, either to stimulate themselves or relax through music, dance, ritual and substances and how all of these desires persist in modern humans. She then outlines how history and anthropological research show that the adoption of agriculture and religion led to societies in which many of those pursuits were restricted and people had to spend more of their time working simply to survive and had less time to pursue their natural states of happiness.

The book’s second section, “Liberty Lost,” looks at cases of liberty being taken away from individuals, including societies that have policed women, removed their agency and power, and saddled them with mental and emotional housework, while showing how gender equality has been the rule rather than the exception among hunter-gatherers and uncolonized people. The text goes on to explore how traditional forms of slavery and modern versions such as human trafficking, repressive religions and modern invisible philosophies such as neoliberalism have enabled billionaires to amass unprecedented levels of wealth and hold politicians in thrall, while simultaneously controlling livelihood of the masses.

“Liberty Found,” the book’s third section, describes many occasions throughout history in which social scientists have documented people living as closely to their natural state as possible. Kerr also shares examples from families of all social classes from her happy families research who shared common traits that contributed to their happiness as well as creative communities across countries bound by few rules that allow them all to create freely.

Finally, “The Psychology of Liberty” examines how throughout history, authoritarian leaders have always existed, but people used humor, creativity and community cooperation to resist them.