Is CBT looting ancient philosophy?

Posted by Jules Evans on 29 March 2010 | 1 Comments

Tags: CBT, stoicism

Julian Baggini, editor of The Philosophers' Magazine, has written two articles raising scepticism about our society's obsession with happiness, and particularly with its current enthusiasm for positive psychology.

The first article, in the Telegraph, said:

what worries me is that our pursuit of happiness is leading us to judge the great intellectual and spiritual traditions of the past according to only one measure: do they increase happiness and reduce misery? That which passes the test is plundered and that which fails is left behind. The result is that wisdom is hollowed out and replaced with a soft centre of caramelised contentment.

If we can find practical, secular advice in the works of Buddhists, stoics and saints, so be it. If Montaigne can soothe your troubled soul, take the balm. The problem is that ways of living and thinking which offer, and demand, so much more, are simply being looted to fill a toolbox for the crass engineering of positive thoughts and warm emotions. The looters are at best blind to the deeper riches on offer, at worst disfiguring the very source of their ill-gotten riches.

To be fair, many of the experts in these fields are fully aware of these dangers. But what about the management consultants, life coaches and even government agencies who are clamouring for their services? By the time the plunderers have themselves been plundered, there could be very little real meat left to nourish more demanding souls. We are witnessing deep thought being driven out by positive thought; true self-awareness sacrificed in the name of shallow happiness.

He returns to his theme in tomorrow's Financial Times, in which he gives a good review of Barbara Ehrenreich's new book, Smile Or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World. Baggini writes:

Ehrenreich describes how she was diagnosed with breast cancer and then discovered that the majority of her fellow sufferers had bought into a bogus ideology that says cancer can make you a better person, and that really wanting to get better is the key to recovery. The flipside of this, of course, is that if you don’t get better, it must somehow be your own fault for being too negative. It also has the perverse implication that it is better to get cancer than not to. “If I had to do it over, would I want breast cancer?” asked sufferer Cindy Cherry. “Absolutely.” As Ehrenreich points out, such an attitude “encourages us to deny reality, submit cheerfully to misfortune, and blame only ourselves for our fate.”

In fact, although CBT rightly presents itself as an evidence-based science, we should recognize that it also enshrines certain ethical assumptions, as most psychologies do, and that in the case of CBT, these ethical assumptions are Hellenistic.

Firstly, CBT is based on the Socratic precept to “know thyself”, and on the Socratic belief that we can use our awareness and rationality to discover our mental habits and transform them. It shares the optimism of Hellenistic philosophy that the self is malleable and improvable through rational philosophy. Like Buddhism and Stoicism, it tries to foster a critical awareness of, and detachment from, our thoughts and opinions, so that we realize that our beliefs about reality are not the same as reality itself.

Secondly, it promotes the Hellenistic ideal of autonomy - the idea that we can use philosophy to become ‘masters of ourselves’. It promotes the idea that taking responsibility for one’s thoughts and emotions is the cornerstone both of mental health and (implicitly) of morality.

Thirdly, it promotes the idea that being a responsible and autonomous individual takes self-discipline. You have to work at monitoring yourself, regulating yourself, and challenging your self-destructive habits. You have to work at achieving fortitude and constancy in your character.

Fourthly, it is based on the Stoic principle of adaptation, of learning to adapt one’s thoughts and beliefs to the ever-changing nature of reality, to become flexible and resilient in the face of adversity, and not to impose one’s rigid demands onto reality.

Finally, it is based on the Hellenistic principle of autarkia, or self-sufficiency. It is based on the idea that people who depend entirely on a particular external thing for their self-worth are likely to become needy, neurotic and emotionally unbalanced; while someone who has a ‘secure base’ or emotional anchor within themselves is likely to be able to engage with the world and other people in a more meaningful, open and fearless manner.

I make these points to show that, while CBT may distance itself from some of the more overtly religious or metaphysical aspects of Hellenistic philosophy, it nevertheless assumes and absorbs many of the ethical beliefs shared by the main Hellenistic philosophies.

CBT thankfully doesn’t accept the Stoic belief in providence, or the Stoic assertion that all externals are indifferent. But it doesn’t need to. In fact, some of the most famous Stoics of the ancient world were not entirely convinced that the Logos existed. Marcus Aurelius, for one, often expressed the suspicion that the universe was nothing more than atoms randomly floating in a void. But he still effectively used Stoic techniques to manage himself and cope with the ups and downs of his life.

One doesn’t have to believe in God to use Stoic techniques. Some of the techniques of Stoicism were very similar to the techniques of Epicureanism, which held an atomistic view of the universe. Albert Ellis, the man who did most to bring Stoic thinking into the modern world, was a militant atheist.  What you do need to believe and accept is the Stoics’ cognitive theory of emotions - the idea that emotional disorders are caused by irrational or illogical beliefs. If you accept that, then many of the techniques of Stoicism will work for you, regardless of whether you believe in God or not.  And just because CBT is secular doesn’t mean that it simply lifts the techniques of Stoicism, but drained of all ethical content. On the contrary, CBT is soaked in the ethics of ancient Greece. The techniques don’t just make you happier. They make you more responsible, more resilient, more virtuous.

http://www.politicsofwellbeing.com