Stoic Anxiolytics

International Journal of Applied Philosophy 25 (1):107-114 (2011)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

We experience anxiety because things may not turn out as we wish. Perhaps the problem is not located in the unfolding of events, but rather in the nature of the wishing. In this paper, I will argue that the Roman Stoics correctly analyzed the necessary conditions surrounding the arising of anxiety, and offered an effective prescription for the treatment and prevention of this disordered emotional state—a prescription that does not involve benzodiazepines such as Valium or Xanax, but one that holds out the promise of a more stable and enduring anxiolytic effect. Ultimately, anxiety can afflict only those whose desires are not rationally governed. There is little that anyone can do about the vicissitudes of the external world and the unraveling of events therein, but there is a great deal thata rational agent can do to manage the objects and direction of desire and aversion. Though not dispensed in tablet or capsule form, Stoic anxiolytics remain available without prescription and exhibit an extraordinarily benign side effect profile. They rarely cause weight gain, sexual dysfunction, or uncontrollable movements of the limbs. Physiological dependence is relatively rare—and not especially pernicious. Instead, Stoicism offers rationally grounded, proven psychological techniques for the gradual development of consistent self-mastery and emotional detachment from those facets of the human condition that tend to cause the most pervasive and unsettling forms of fear, anxiety, and avoidable disquiet.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Stoic Anxiolytics Revisited.James Stacey Taylor - 2011 - International Journal of Applied Philosophy 25 (1):115-117.
The Stoic life: emotions, duties, and fate.Tad Brennan - 2005 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Nietzsche's free spirit trilogy and Stoic therapy.Michael Ure - 2009 - Journal of Nietzsche Studies 38 (1):60-84.
Stoicism & emotion.Margaret Graver - 2007 - Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Stoics Against Stoics In Cudworth's A Treatise of Freewill.John Sellars - 2012 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 20 (5):935-952.
Stoic Conceptions of Freedom and their Relation to Ethics.Susanne Bobzien - 1997 - Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 41 (S68):71-89.
Stoic ethics.William O. Stephens - 2004 - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
The Ideal of the Stoic Sportsman.William Stephens & Randolph Feezell - 2004 - Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 31 (2):196-211.

Analytics

Added to PP
2011-12-02

Downloads
34 (#407,456)

6 months
3 (#447,120)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

William Ferraiolo
San Joaquin Delta College

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references