Being Autonomous
By Coach Naureen Athar
Autonomy or being autonomous refers to the ability and right to self-governance despite external or
internal pressures.
Greater autonomy for a country would mean the country’s government is able to take its decisions and
act independently regardless of external or internal pressures.
Human beings can be autonomous if they are able to govern themselves with an independent thought
process, authentic feelings and a belief system that is constantly changing or evolving, despite what they
have grown up with and also not succumbing to external pressures, beliefs, thoughts and feelings they
are subjected to.
Eric Berne, a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, never offered a definition of the word in his work on
Transactional Analysis. He describes “Autonomy” as being ‘manifested by the release or recovery of
three capacities: awareness, spontaneity and intimacy.’
1. Awareness
An aware person is in contact with his own bodily sensations and instincts as well as the external
stimuli. As we grow up most of us are systematically trained to deaden our awareness. We learn
instead to devote energy to naming things and criticizing our own or other people’s
performance. It is this obsessive thinking that comes in the way of sensations.
For example, As a teacher explains I may be engaged in an internal monologue: ‘This is so
boring. Why should I care what happened a hundred years ago. I wonder when this is going to
finish? I want to go home and sleep. I’m too tired.’
If I let myself become aware, I switch off this internal voice in my head. I simply experience the
lesson and be fully immersed in the happenings and become aware of the chills and horrors of
wars or the wonders told and my own bodily responses to it.
2. Spontaneity
Spontaneity means the capacity to choose from a full range of options in feeling, thinking and
behaving. So an aware person experiences the world, and the spontaneous person responds to
the world: directly, without blanking out portions of reality or distorting or reinterpreting it
according to his upbringing or the norms of society. They choose to respond freely to suit the
present situation, not to comply with outdated Parental commands.
3. Intimacy
Intimacy is into-me-see and so means an open sharing of feelings and wants between two
people. It refers to an empathic way of communication which caters to both people’s needs and
wants. The prerequisite to intimacy is emotional awareness and self awareness necessary to
detect feelings and patterns involved in a communicational transaction.
In Schiffian terms we can say that the autonomous person enagages in problem solving instead of
passivity. Here. Problem solving doesnot imply thinking to find a solution to a problem but also taking
effective action to bring that solution about. An autonomous or fully functioning individual either takes
ACTION or LET’s GO.
Whenever anyone makes a significant change in their mindset and behaviours they will experience a
natural high for sometime, often reverting back to old patterns and behavior. But the old behavior is no
longer satisfying as it used to be. This time they do not stay there for long coming out of it and making
the shift permanent.
(The above is inspired from the Book TA Today where Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis theory is
consolidated, written by Ian Stewart and Vann Joines)
When we make a Venn Diagram of the three, we end up with overlapping two capacities which in turn
can give us a further understanding into the subject of Autonomy and Leadership.
1. Command
When a person is self aware, he understands all his unconscious reactions and habits. He begins
to change them consciously. With all this awareness he is also able to understand others more
than they understand themselves. His spontaneity is when he responds being in the PRESENT
moment and not by being in the past or worried about the future. He is fully aware of his needs
and wants and direction. He takes decisions accordingly.
2. Connection
With the self awareness about themselves and others, the effective communication possible
builds an everlasting connection. With proper awareness we know exactly who to connect with
and to what degree is that connection necessary.
3. Confidence
Lastly when a person is spontaneous and witty and in the moment and communicates well with
others, he is seen as a genuinely confident person ready to communicate with anyone.
Autonomy or being autonomous is essentially a goal or outcome every therapist or psychologist or for
that matter an educational institute is seeking. It can only begin to start from starting to look within –
with Self Awareness