Introducing "The Stoicism Workbook"
Why is Stoicism so important to modern cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy?
This excerpt is my introduction to The Stoicism Workbook: How the Wisdom of Socrates Can Help You Build Resilience and Overcome Anything Life Throws at You by Scott Waltman, R. Trent Codd, and, my wife, Kasey Pierce. The book is now available to preorder from Amazon and other bookstores in both ebook and paperback format.
The Stoicism Workbook
Less than twenty years ago, Stoicism was little more than an obscure niche subject in academic philosophy. Although millions of people owned books by famous Stoics such as Marcus Aurelius and Seneca, nobody thought of Stoicism as a movement within the modern self-improvement field. That changed quite rapidly, as the emergence of social media allowed people all over the world who had read the Stoics to form online communities. In 2008, William B. Irvine published A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy, the first bestselling modern book on Stoicism. A few years later, Ryan Holiday The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph, became a huge international bestseller, which confirmed Stoicism as a genre of modern self-help. Now it’s difficult to keep track of the new books and articles being published on Stoicism every year.
The foundations of this Stoic renaissance were laid much earlier, though, in the 1950s, by Albert Ellis, one of the leading pioneers of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), Ellis, having become thoroughly disillusioned with the psychoanalytic therapy in which he had trained, decided to start again from scratch. He began developing what, at that time, he called simply “rational therapy” but later became known as rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT). Ellis had read widely in the field of psychotherapy but also in related subjects, particularly philosophy. Ellis recalled having first encountered the writings of Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus as a young man. As he began looking for an alternative to the psychoanalytic tradition, they suddenly appeared more relevant to him than ever before. Ellis was happy to credit the Stoics with anticipating his key ideas: “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,” and he names Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius in particular as his influences in this regard (Ellis, 1962, p. 35). (Ellis appears to have been less interested in Seneca, the other famous Stoic whose works survive today.)
The famous quote from Epictetus used by both Ellis and Beck to explain the role of cognition in their theory of emotion, and psychopathology, became almost a cliche among therapists…
Indeed, Stoicism became one of the main philosophical inspirations for the new approach to psychotherapy that Ellis was developing. When Aaron T. Beck published his seminal Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders likewise he stated that “the philosophical underpinnings [of cognitive therapy] go back thousands of years, certainly to the time of the Stoics, who considered man’s conceptions (or misconceptions) of events rather than the events themselves as the key to his emotional upsets. (Beck A. T., 1976, p. 3). In particular, the famous quote from Epictetus used by both Ellis and Beck to explain the role of cognition in their theory of emotion, and psychopathology, became almost a cliche among therapists: “People are disturbed not by events, but by their opinions about events.” This quote is found in countless subsequent books on CBT. It is, however, the only reference to Stoicism mentioned by most of them. That subsequent neglect of Stoicism is surprising for several reasons.
Ellis, the original pioneer of cognitive-behavioral therapy, refers to Stoicism many times throughout his writings, drawing on different passages from Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, and he employs many other concepts and practices that appear indebted to Stoicism.
As Stoicism and CBT share virtually the same premise about the role of cognition in emotional problems, they’re likely to arrive at similar conclusions about the best solutions, and we should therefore expect that Stoic contemplative practices might be worth investigating in order to gain new ideas for therapy strategies and techniques.
As Stoicism is not merely a therapy but a whole philosophy of life, it potentially offers a framework for developing CBT into a lifelong practice with a broad scope, for self-improvement and developing general emotional resilience.
Many individuals who are not attracted to conventional self-help or therapy literature are nevertheless drawn to Stoicism, and it may therefore provide their only exposure to beneficial psychological advice similar to that found in CBT. For instance, Stoicism is popular with prison inmates and military personnel, who sometimes (mistakenly) view using self-help or psychotherapy as a sign of weakness and therefore to be avoided.
With the development of a “third wave” in CBT, consisting of “mindfulness and acceptance” based approaches, emphasis has shifted on to strategies such as developing cognitive mindfulness and clarifying personal values, which bear a striking resemblance to prominent aspects of ancient Stoicism.
The Stoicism Workbook is written by two experienced CBT clinicians, and one layperson who has been applying Stoicism to everyday problems of living. I hope that it will help its readers to discover the many ways in which Stoic philosophy and cognitive psychotherapy might complement each other. In particular, by incorporating recent “third wave” ideas from CBT they help to expand the range of comparisons between Stoicism and modern psychotherapy. Moreover, by drawing attention to the value of Stoicism, and Socratic questioning, for building emotional resilience, they help to bridge the divide between clinical practice and general self-improvement, making the combination of Stoicism and CBT relevant and applicable to a much wider audience.
A wonderfully written, in-depth discussion of both the philosophy and the psychology of ancient Stoicism and modern cognitive behavioral therapies.