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The author studies the problem at the level of 'the conflict-free sphere of the ego'. Freud stated that the striving for ego freedom is inherent in psycho-analysis, but the problem is to see how free will develops from the archaic stages of indeterminacy and infantile automatism. An important first distinction is that indeterminism and not determinism is the alternative to free will.
In the first stage of development, the overcoming of primitive indeterminacy has to be achieved through 'automatization of psychic processes' which is no more than a rudimentary adaptability. Gradually, this narrow functioning has to give way to the 'autonomous determinism of freedom'. This process implies the continuous temptation to regress to earlier stages of automatism, in order to avoid anxiety, the 'emotion of the possible'. The unconscious, here, is not eliminated but integrated and surpassed.
Psychic determinism is seen as a preliminary condition for freedom. Free activity is a self-determined activity, with the highest capacity for flexibility in adaptation, for rational motivation and creativeness. Finally, neurotic attitudes are analyzed as inability and fear to reach freedom.