How Effective is Stoicism as a form of Psychotherapy?

One in four people in the world today will at some
point suffer from mental illness. Increasingly,
traditional drug based approaches to treatment are
being seen as, at best, short term solutions, and at
worst, completely ineffective and often producing
dangerous side effects. Consequently, there is now a
desire within the medical profession to find a more
holistic cognitive approach to the treatment of
mental illness, one which treats the patient''s body,
mind and soul. The Stoics claim to go far deeper in
their treatment of mental suffering than any modern
drug based, or even modern psycho-analytic approach,
to mental illness: they propose to work directly on
the human soul itself. The desire of the Stoic
Philosophers
was to unite each individual''s soul with the divine
order of the universe, with individuals achieving
a ''God-like'' view of themselves and their human
predicaments within the cosmos. This is an attempt
to assess the Stoics'' claims, and to see if we can
extrapolate psychotherapeutic methodology from their
ancient wisdom in the fight against
mental illness.

Autorentext
Anthony Collins completed his Bachelors degree in History and the Study of Religions at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, before gaining a Masters degree in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. His main interest lies in Ancient Philosophy, with a special focus on Stoicism.

Klappentext
One in four people in the world today will at some point suffer from mental illness. Increasingly, traditional drug based approaches to treatment are being seen as, at best, short term solutions, and at worst, completely ineffective and often producing dangerous side effects. Consequently, there is now a desire within the medical profession to find a more holistic cognitive approach to the treatment of mental illness, one which treats the patient's body, mind and soul. The Stoics claim to go far deeper in their treatment of mental suffering than any modern drug based, or even modern psycho-analytic approach, to mental illness: they propose to work directly on the human soul itself. The desire of the Stoic Philosophers was to unite each individual's soul with the divine order of the universe, with individuals achieving a 'God-like' view of themselves and their human predicaments within the cosmos. This is an attempt to assess the Stoics' claims, and to see if we can extrapolate psychotherapeutic methodology from their ancient wisdom in the fight against mental illness.