ABSTRACT
During the Hellenistic period, most schools of philosophy had explicitly therapeutic goals. Of course, this largely meant psychological rather than physical therapy: “It is more necessary for the soul to be cured than the body, for it is better to die than to live badly” (Epictetus, fr. 32, in Epictetus 1995). The conception of philosophy as medicine for the soul, the root meaning of “psychotherapy,” goes back at least as far as Socrates, and was a commonplace by the Hellenistic period. Of these ancient schools of philosophy, Stoicism is the one most obviously related to modern psychotherapy. Although the Stoic goal was “living in agreement with nature,” meaning in accord with reason and virtue, it was considered self-evident that the eudaimonia of the ideal Sage was incompatible with the presence of emotional turmoil, and irrational fears and desires. The Stoics therefore developed a fairly extensive and sophisticated armamentarium of psychological strategies to help themselves progress toward not only virtue but also apatheia, freedom from irrational and unhealthy passions. What Epictetus called the “discipline of desire and aversion” can also be described as a, primarily self-administered, “therapy of the passions” or “Stoic psychotherapy.” Moreover, he advised his students that it was necessary for them to master this form of self-discipline before proceeding to study other aspects of Stoic theory and practice. He could therefore assert the medical analogy quite bluntly: “the philosopher’s school is a doctor’s clinic” (Diss. 3.23.30). Among modern scholars, Pierre Hadot has provided a particularly detailed analysis of the
numerous “spiritual” or therapeutic exercises to be found in ancient Stoic literature (Hadot 1998). However, he did not explore the undeniable similarity between these psychological strategies and those of modern psychotherapy. The comparison with psychotherapy should, of course, not be misunderstood as meaning that Stoics typically carried out the sort of individual treatment sessions that modern therapists do. In addition to being more self-guided, Stoicism was also largely “prophylactic” or preventative, whereas modern psychotherapy is mainly remedial. However, Stoicism has also had some influence on modern approaches to emotional “resilience-building” (Jarrett 2008; Robertson 2012). Nevertheless, these do tend to draw heavily on cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy techniques, modified to serve a preventative function. Indeed, research on individual psychotherapy has been the testing ground
from which more general-purpose psychological concepts and techniques, such as those employed in resilience-building programs, are derived. However, the Stoics actually appear to have undertaken “therapeutic” processes in several
different formats. Hence, the three main surviving bodies of Roman Stoic literature can be viewed as portraying Stoic training in ways broadly comparable to several different therapeutic modalities that exist today: the Letters of Seneca to Lucilius portray the advice and guidance of a Stoic mentor to a novice, which might be loosely compared to the modern relationship between a counselor or therapist and his clients in individual treatment sessions; the Discourses of Epictetus show him engaging in Socratic-type dialogues with students and visitors to his school, comparable to the so-called “Socratic” practices employed in some modern forms of therapeutic workshop or group therapy; the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius record his use of Stoic written and contemplative exercises, comparable to the modern practice of keeping a “therapy journal” or workbook for psychological self-help. To this we might add the three “consolation” letters of Seneca, addressed to his mother
and others, examples of a well-known “therapeutic” genre in the ancient world, which obviously resemble certain forms of modern self-help literature, particularly that containing advice for those struggling through challenges such as bereavement. Moreover, there are hundreds of different schools of thought or “models” in modern
psychotherapy. As noted above, the approach with the most explicit link to ancient philosophy, particularly Stoicism, is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). This link with Stoicism is particularly notable in relation to CBT’s main precursor, and close relative, rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT). Albert Ellis, the founder of REBT, and Aaron T. Beck, the founder of “cognitive therapy,” the most common version of CBT, both described Stoicism as the main philosophical inspiration for their respective psychotherapies. For instance, in the first major CBT treatment manual, Cognitive Therapy of Depression, Beck and his colleagues wrote:
The philosophical origins of cognitive therapy can be traced back to the Stoic philosophers, particularly Zeno of Citium (fourth century B.C.), Chrysippus, Cicero,1
Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. Epictetus wrote in The Enchiridion: “Men are disturbed not by things but by the views which they take of them.”
