Stoicism’s biggest myth #philosophy #ancientphilosophy #stoicism

Almost everyone gets this wrong about Stoicism. They think that Stoics suppressed their emotions.

In fact, the opposite is true. Stoics placed huge value on self-knowledge, including knowledge of your emotions. This is because they ultimately did not want to suppress their emotions, but treat them as information.

If you are angry, that tells you something! It tells you that there is something happening which is against your values.

If you are scared, it tells you that there is something you perceive as a threat.

All the Stoics said is that we should not be carried away by these emotions, but should take a step back, ask why we feel the way we do, and then decide a course of action.

It is quite similar to the methods taught in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and no one accuses them of suppressing their feelings.

[Randomthoughts]

Why is nobody talking about the moustache

[distortedsounds]

I really agree. It’s often seen as stoics don’t really have emotion or something of the sort but really, they just manage it well. (Are able to control them, I mean)

[thenondualisticmystic]

Here's what I think: suppressing emotions is WHAT CAUSES people to get carried away by those very emotions. If people are properly acknowledging their emotions, those same emotions will not hijack them out of nowhere in anger at not being acknowledged. ("What you resist persists") therefore, if stoics do after all emphasize properly feeling the emotions, their admonition to not "get carried away by emotions" seems a little silly. As not getting carried away, seems to be the NATURAL side effect of acknowledging emotions. And wouldn't be a danger if emotions were properly acknowledged in the first place.

[thato]

You right. That is what i was also thinking about emotions. When i feel some type of way. I think of why i am stress or sad or happy. And then i try to find a solution

[cimmerianshade]

that's true, its just valuing self-awareness

[counsela]

As a follower of the stoics philosophy, this is very accurate.

[davidhoffman]

Are you saying that emotonal maturity isn't just suppression? Imagine that.

[chrisbirch]

This is one of the best tricks for controlling negative emotion. You get to a stage where you start to notice emotions pop up as sensations in small regions of your chest and abdomen. It trivialises the moment. Its not a fix all because were are atill human afterall, but it can make things a lot easier.

[pouetpouetdaddy]

you are bit wrong...and right. Its not about repressing emotions, but about your preceptions. It's not what it's outside of you, and you don't control, that make your emotions, but what you think about it. Change your mind, or opinions (even stop to have opinions on everything), you will change how you react emotionally

[ryand]

Wait until everyone finds out that that stoics in reality where more like the spiritualists today. Instead of directly promoting religion, they asked people to focus on what they value and what they find most virtuous.

[robertgarcea]

Your emotional perception of a situation is always valid, but your reaction to the situation isn't always, in ither words.

On that note, emotions aren't necessarily diametrically opposed to logic and reason, as commonly believed. Emotions are mental shortcuts the brain uses to function more optimally on a day-to-day basis.

In the same way you have developed integrated automatisms to brush your teeth, write with a pen and many, many more simple actions, you also aggregate your perceptions of all of the actions a person (or of the experiences you had in a certain place, or during the consumption of a particular meal) has done into a global impression of them, which can help in speeding up the proper reaction/course of action to them.

So instead of:
Black Widow spider -> 8 legs, crawly, fast red spot, John weirdly died in pain after getting bit by one last year -> Run away
You get:
Black Widow spider -> Fear -> Run away

[Thc]

Great, I’d love to hear more about stoicism, but I’m not getting on your van.

[aartichaudhary]

I think...you are looking a little bit different.

[hydr]

If you want to free the marionette from being forced to act out the wishes of another, you might cut off its strings. However instead of being free to do as it pleases, the marionette will fall to the ground, never to move again.

[maryamnaseer]

Correct. Stoicism is about making oneself the master of oneself, and emotions are part of being human, so the rational thing is to understand them in order to master them. Their nature is contratry to logic, but they cannot be ignored when present, just as a wound or headache can't be ignored. Ignoring or bottling up emotions makes you, at one point or another, a slave to them. And stoics are slaves to nothing except, perhaps, the deity or set of principles they choose to subscribe to. Self-mastery is emphasised because that is the way in which one is less of a burden to others, and more able to pursue the life one wishes to pursue without too much reliance on others.

[emilyp]

I love cbt, but sometimes I feel like I am gaslighting myself. I wonder if I’m the only one. Maybe I am not “cbt-ing” correctly.

[Dhrrheeea]

How is this different from Nietzsche? Im struggling to understand this.

[dracotitanfall]

What i dislike about stoicism is how it draws a clean line between the internal world (which you are assumed to be able to control) and the external world (which you are assumed to be unable to influence in any way). I feel like this just encourages passivity and acceptance of injustice. It would also lead to political apathy that will lead to disastrous results in the long term and reduce the effectiveness of democracy.

[Zimage]

What info would sadness provide? That you've lost something meaningful?

[sandiadelsol]

I agree! But stoicism is an really interesting topic and need a lot of study