According to WikiPedia:Cornelius_Castoriadis, individual autonomy consists of making our own rules, with full awareness of our desires and the oppressive patterns of our existing society. Freud believed that people are driven by the gratification of libidinous instincts, but Castoriadis claims it is actually awareness of them and self-conscious choice that give liberation.

However, individual autonomy is only possible when we also have SocialAutonomy (we cannot be free alone), so autonomous communities must:

• exist by their own definitions;
• have political and economic self-determination;
• make their own culture, beliefs and values;
• recognise our society as the source of our norms;
• involve every member on an equal level in making rules and in explicit power; and
• have direct democracy (ConsensusDecisionMaking rather than RepresentativeDemocracy)

Autonomy is contrasted with heteronomy. A heteronomous society regards rules and institutions as legitimate based on tradition, an interpretation of history, claims of natural laws, or some external authority, such as God; autonomous individuals view institutions as social imaginary significations, with no source outside society. While our current heteronomous society tends to compel people to compromise, retreat into a general conformism, and accept the authority of representatives or a GodKing, Castoriadis argues that instead an autonomous society should endlessly and explicitly re-institute itself by critical self-reflection.

In a historical analysis, Castoriadis describes heteronomy as the norm, and SocialAutonomy as an ideal that will perhaps never truly be achieved, but in becoming autonomous one should "contribute as much as you can to the autonomy of others".