Ancient Stoic philosophy and modern Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
The Stoic Philosophy dates back to the 3rd century BC, in the age of the ancient Roman and Greek empires, and tackles many of the questions that we still ask ourselves in modern times about how to live a good life. Three main figures are associated with this ancient school of thought: Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and Epitecus.
A main tenet of Stoicism is that our perceptions about the world, not just the situation itself, can shape our reactions which, in turn, influences the possible outcomes. That is to say that the same event or fact, in a similar situation, if perceived differently, could lead to wildly different results.
Surprisingly, this idea was also rediscovered in modern Psychology with the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT proposes that much of our suffering is due to cognitive distortions, such as overgeneralization, minimizing the positive, catastrophizing, which leads us perpetuate self-defeating behavior. CBT has shown great effectiveness in clinical trials for treating a variety of mental disorders and improving life satisfaction in published research.