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)
