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Going to the Stoic Mind Gym
How to carry out evidence-based practical philosophy
Stoicism is a philosophy of life. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy. The latter began with the work of Albert Ellis in the 1950s, and Ellis was directly inspired by Stoic writings, especially those of the second century slave-turned-teacher Epictetus of Hierapolis.
In particular, Ellis was motivated by a crucial passage in Epictetus’s Enchiridion, or manual for a good life. He cites this passage in the second edition of his book, The Practice of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (Springer, 1997, p. 112):
“It is not things themselves that trouble people, but their opinions about things.” (Enchiridion 5)
Ellis pointed out that Shakespeare writes something very much along the same lines in Hamlet:
“There’s nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so.” (Act II, Scene 2)
Indeed, Epictetus goes on to provide a specific example of what he is talking about:
“Death, for instance, is nothing terrible (otherwise, it would have appeared that way to Socrates as well), but the terrible thing is the opinion that death is terrible.” (Enchiridion 5)
In this essay I will outline the difference between Stoicism as a philosophy of life and CBT as psychotherapy, spelling out as clearly as I can how one may proficiently practice both in pursuit of a more serene life (CBT) and of ethical self-improvement (Stoicism).
Stoicism: the philosophy
The major difference between a philosophy of life and a psychotherapy is that the first one aims at providing us with prescriptive advice about what is important in life, while the second one aims at solving specific psychological issues we may suffer from and that may affect the quality of our life.
The difference between the two is not always that sharp, and Ellis himself articulated his Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) as a mix of therapy and philosophy. Nevertheless, to a first approximation, the distinction holds, and is very useful.
Let us, then start with the broader perspective, that is, with the philosophy. The goal (telos, in Greek) of Stoicism is to…
