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In this paper individualism, or the tendency to emphasise individual needs and aspirations, is discussed in the context of community adult education practice. It is proposed that individualism may disenable community action or it may be community enabling. In the former case, it becomes anti-community and obstructive, serving an obfuscatory function; while in the latter case, it is pro-community and constructive, performing a facilitating function. The form it takes depends on whether adult education is offered in the liberal or the liberating mode; and also on whether the adult educator views learning and action as an inseparable process and thus decides, or not, to emphasise the cultivation of learning behaviour geared toward community transformation and development.