Medicine for the Mind: Donald Robertson on Ancient Therapies for Modern Stressors

There’s something strangely reassuring about knowing people were wrestling with the similar issues we struggle with over 2,000 years ago — even if they wore togas and wrote with a chisel.

 

Donald Robertson is a cognitive-behavioral psychotherapist, acclaimed author of How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, and one of the world’s leading voices on Stoicism. He’s also the founder of the Plato’s Academy Centre in Athens, and a founding member of the Modern Stoicism nonprofit.

 

On this pod, we talk about the wisdom literature and how it can help with emotional distress; specifically, the idea of Stoics as ancient psychotherapists. Donald explains how Stoicism wasn’t just a philosophy of life, but also a clear system of psychotherapy in ancient Greek and Roman thought.

 

Some episode highlights:

• How shifting definitions shape our understanding of mental illness
• On the paradox of growth through adversity
• Struggle and transformation
• Experiential wisdom
• Fortune and the bitch goddess of success
• Stoicism as an ancient psychotherapy
• The philosophical roots of cognitive therapy
• On anger, and the art of self-mastery (Seneca, Galen)
• On Worry and rumination
• Marcus Aurelius 
• Stoicism’s broader vision
• On the “view from above” and the liberation of perspective
• How time expansion mitigates worry
• The complex relationship of thoughts and emotions
• The core proposition of both Stoicism and CBT
• How complaining signals resistance to reality
• Acceptance and the dichotomy of control
• How to reconnect with what’s essential in a noisy world

 

This isn’t motivational fluff; it’s a toolkit for anyone who’s ever gotten tangled in their own head.