In-Congress Workshop 12 - How to Think Like Socrates: From Socratic Questioning to Stoicism to Modern CBT

Socrates was pronounced by the ancient Oracle as the wisest of his time. His philosophy was all about overcoming our ignorance and living a good life. From his teachings, many lines of philosophy were born. Ancient Stoicism was born out of Socratic wisdom. In the last decade there has been an explosion of interest in Stoicism worldwide. While ‘lowercase s’ stoicism conveys the idea of being unemotional or emotionally suppressed, ‘capital S’ Stoicism is a philosophy and ancient wisdom that dates back over 2000 years. Albert Ellis famously quoted the Roman philosopher Epictetus who said, “Men are not disturbed by things, but by their view of things.” Hundreds of years prior to Epictetus, Chrysippus wrote the first CBT book called On Emotions which detailed how our emotional reactions were influenced by our interpretations of situations (thoughts). There is a wealth of Stoic wisdom that CBT has yet to capitalize on. Notably, the goal of Stoicism is to tolerate discomfort and focus on living a good life that is in line with your values. In this way, Stoicism is actually more compatible with mindfulness- and acceptance-based approaches like modern Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. This workshop will focus on the methods of Socrates (Socratic Questioning) and the lived philosophy that was born from his work (Stoicism).