ISBN: 9781925335460

The Freedom Trap: Reclaiming Liberty and Wellbeing

AUD $24.99 Tax Included

In many ways, we’ve never been more ‘free’ – to follow our dreams and choose our paths – but still more people than ever feel overwhelmed by daily living in a world that seems to breed anxiety, depression and discontent. Eye-opening and challenging, The Freedom Trap poses the question many of us are asking: what can we do to change this?

Mindfulness expert Craig Hassed makes an inspiring call for clearer thinking and appraises what freedom really is, discussing a fascinating range of philosophical, political, psychological and scientific perspectives. Discover a new understanding of true freedom, and explore how you can attain a life of peace, happiness and harmony.

SPECIFICATIONS: Paperback | 229 x 152 mm / 9 x 6 Inches | Black & White | 272 Pages |

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Associate Professor Craig Hassed works at the Department of General Practice and is coordinator of mindfulness programs at Monash University. His teaching, research and clinical interests include mindfulness-based stress management, mind–body medicine, meditation, health promotion, integrative medicine and medical ethics. Craig is regularly invited to speak and run courses in Australia and overseas in health, professional and educational contexts. He was the founding president of the Australian Teachers of Meditation Association and is a regular media commentator. He writes regularly for medical journals and has published eleven books, as well as featuring in the documentary The Connection. Craig has a long-term interest in philosophy and the world’s great wisdom traditions.

In many ways we have never been more ‘free’. We are freer to follow our dreams, set goals and live the life we choose. Yet mental health issues are sky-rocketing. Anxiety and depression are rife and more people feel overwhelmed by daily living. We are more addictive, distracted and pressured. This is a world that increasingly seems to breed discontent. So, is all our so-called freedom nothing more than a trap of our own making? Are we, as the saying goes, simply decorating the cage that keeps us imprisoned? Does everything that flies under the banner of freedom actually promote it? What can we do to change the status quo? The Freedom Trap is an inspiring call for clear thinking and a fresh appraisal of what our freedoms mean and can become. In this challenging, confronting and eye-opening look at what freedom actually is — examined from philosophical, psychological, political, social, legal, ethical, scientific, historical and neurological perspectives — mindfulness expert Associate Professor Craig Hassed explores how we can alleviate our burdens (our worries, regrets and material desires) and find a life of peace, happiness and harmony — true freedom.

Including practical thinking steps to help further your understanding of what freedom really means, this book is essential reading for anyone who has ever thought ‘there has to be more to life than this’.

Femail, July 2017
“an inspiring call for clear thinking and a fresh appraisal of what freedom means”

Living Now Magazine, January 2018
“Asks us to think more deeply about what it means to be free and the implications for a happy cohesive and just society.” – Click here to read the 3 page feature article in full.


Southern FM, November 2017
“Puts the cat among the pigeons and asks us to think” – Click here to listen.


Otago Daily Times, August 2017
“We need to exercise our brain to help develop in a way that means we aren’t constantly seeking to feed a perceived need,” Dr Hassed says. Read the full article here.


Welldoing, July 2017
“Craig has written an article, collating the thoughts of notable psychologists (the likes of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung) on the notion of freedom.” Read the article here.


Living Now Magazine, July 2017
“This article is based on Craig’s book, The Freedom Trap, which is an exploration of what freedom means politically, psychologically, legally, ethically and philosophically. The book asks questions that encourage us to think again and more deeply about what it means to be free and the implications for a happy, cohesive and just society.” – Click here to read.


Booktopia, July 2017
“The aim of the book is not to provide dogmatic answers to complex modern issues but rather to ask simple questions that will make us think again and challenge widely held but rarely questioned assumptions.” – Read Craig’s guest blog at Booktopia here.

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