What is Stoic Philosophy and How Does it Work?

Where did Stoicism come from?

Greek philosophy focused on reason, and how best to live your present life right. Early philosophers were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. When Hellenistic philosophy formed in Athens around the end of Alexander the Great’s reign, the country was in chaos. Greek philosophers offered methods for finding peace within yourself, and they taught virtue and universal reason.

The Stoics were no exception; based on the moral ideas of the Cynics, Stoicism was founded in 400 B.C. and moved to Rome where it flourished during the period of the Empire and influenced Christianity.

Stoics believed in living a life of virtue in accordance with nature. Similar to Buddhist and Christian teaching, this included aversion to conventional desires for wealth, power, etc. The philosophy also promoted positive perspectives, productivity, patience and peace of mind.

The name Stoic comes from the Stoa Poikile, or painted porch, an open market in Athens where the original Stoics used to meet and teach philosophy in the early Third Century BC.

Romans liked Stoicism, and it existed as one of the major schools of philosophy from the Hellenistic period through to the Roman era, revived during the Renaissance as Neostoicism and in the current era as Modern Stoicism, in which the philosophy is often associated with cognitive behavioral therapy.

Who Were the Stoics & What was their Message Anyway?

The Greco-Roman Stoics taught the cultivation of mental fortitude throughout challenge.

The most famous Stoic philosophers are those of Imperial times (27 B.C.E. to C.E. 476): Marcus Aurelius, the badass Emperor who penned The Meditations from a battlefield tent, orator Seneca the Younger, and Epictētos, born into slavery.

When Epictetus's depraved master twisted his leg Epictetus warned him about taking it too far. When the leg snapped, he smiled and said, “Didn’t I warn you?” For the rest of his life he would walk with a limp, but he would say “Lameness is an impediment to the leg but not to the will.”

Seneca the Younger (in full Lucius Annaeus Seneca) was a statesman, tragedian and one of Rome’s leading intellectuals. He lived with poor health, but pitied people who have never experienced misfortune.

“You have passed through life without an opponent. No one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.”

The Three Major Surviving Stoic Sources

• The Discourses of Epictetus are transcripts of his discussions with groups of students at his philosophical school, where he can be seen answering questions and also employing Socratic questioning, in a way that could be compared to group therapy or a self-help workshop.

• The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius are a private record of his own contemplative practices, like a Stoic self-help or therapy journal.

• Letters From a Stoic by Seneca show him offering advice and support to others comparable to an individual therapist or life coach. The letters are known as consolatio or philosophical consolation literature, addressed to individuals who are struggling following bereavement or some other misfortune. They provide a particularly clear example of the way in which Stoic philosophy was administered as a form of psychotherapeutic advice.

How Was Stoicism Used as Psychotherapy?

The philosophical origins of cognitive therapy can be traced back to the Stoic philosophers, particularly Zeno of Citium (fourth century B.C.), Chrysippus, Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius.

Novice Stoics had individual tutors who administered Stoic therapy in person. Marcus Aurelius mentions that his Stoic tutor Junius Rusticus persuaded him to undergo therapeia to improve his character.

We do have a surviving book called On the Diagnosis and Cure of the Soul's Passions by Galen, Marcus Aurelius' court physician, who notes that we tend to have a blind spot for our own errors and so he recommends obtaining the help of a wiser and more experienced mentor who can question us about our character and actions.

Socrates considered philosophy to be, among other things, a form of talking therapy, a sort of medicine for the mind. Within a few generations of his death, this idea of philosophy as psychotherapy had become commonplace among the various schools of Hellenistic philosophy. However, it was the Stoics who placed most emphasis on this therapeutic dimension of philosophy. Epictetus:

 "The philosopher's school is a doctor's clinic."
 
Most people are unaware of the extent to which ancient Greeks and Romans conceived of philosophy as a type of psychological therapy.

Stoicism survived for five centuries but its therapeutic concepts and practices were largely neglected until the start of the 20th century when a rational approach to psychotherapy began emerging, which held that many emotional and psychosomatic problems were caused by negative self-talk or autosuggestions, which could be amenable to rational disputation. Its leading proponent, the Swiss psychiatrist Paul Dubois, employed Socratic questioning with his patients and taught them the basic principles of a Socratic and Stoic philosophy of life. Dubois:

Is Stoicism Used by Contemporary Psychologists?

By the middle of the 20th century Stoicism and rational psychotherapy, based on these venerable philosophical principles, were temporarily eclipsed in popularity by an oddity that was to be rather short-lived by comparison: Freudian psychoanalysis.

Despite the similarity of his approach to that of early rational psychotherapists such as Dubois, Ellis was initially unaware of their writings. However, as far back as his youth, before training as a psychotherapist, Ellis had read the Stoics and referred to them throughout his writings. 

"Many of the principles incorporated in the theory of rational-emotive psychotherapy are not new; some of them, in fact, were originally stated several thousand years ago, especially by the Greek and Roman Stoic philosophers."

Nearly two decades after Ellis had first brought it up, Aaron T. Beck, the founder of cognitive therapy, restated this claim that the doctrines of Stoicism constitute the "philosophical origins" of cognitive therapy in their groundbreaking treatment manual for clinical depression.

As Stoicism was reaching a wider audience, through self-help literature and the Internet, the field of CBT was changing with the emergence of the third-wave. Third wave therapy introduced greater emphasis on themes like mindfulness, acceptance, and valued living.

But these methods more often employed Buddhist literature, ignorant to Western contributions toward mindfulness and acceptance which were already practices native to ancient Stoicism. The popularity of Stoicism among therapists has also been hampered because of the tendency to confuse it with (lower-case) stoicism, the "stiff upper-lip" personality trait or coping style.

The word "stoicism" is often taken to mean crudely suppressing feelings of distress — something potentially quite unhealthy. However, Stoic philosophy teaches a far more nuanced approach to emotional self-regulation, which is more consistent with the aims of psychotherapy.

Stoic elements can be found in other philosophical traditions, especially during the Hellenistic period, and also in the writings of poets such as Horace and Ovid who were influenced by philosophy. However, it's the Stoics themselves who place most emphasis on these techniques. 

Stoicism survived as a living tradition, in ancient Greece and Rome, for over five hundred years, eventually assimilating into Neoplatonism but leaving an impression on early Christianity. Sharing similar ethical values with Christianity, modern followers of Stoicism describe it as providing them with a secular alternative. Following the renaissance there was a revival of interest in Stoicism known as Neostoicism which attempted to revive ancient Stoicism in a form that would be acceptable to a Christian audience.