ABSTRACT
One of the most fundamental techniques of classical philosophical therapy was the method known as praemeditatio malorum, which means preparing the mind in advance to cope with adversity. The equally famous philosophical technique of the meditation on death can be seen as the ultimate form of the premeditatio malorum. Aaron Beck and his colleagues recommend targeting suicidal thoughts directly in some cases by identifying possible stressful situations which require problem-solving and employing what they call “cognitive rehearsal”, or “forced fantasy”. Albert Ellis developed an early cognitive–behavioural technique known as rational emotive imagery, which allows the client to face their fears in a more constructive manner and this is the main imagery technique used by his school of therapy. Arnold Lazarus, the founder of multimodal therapy, an early form of Cognitive—Behavioural Therapy that combined elements of Ellis’s rational therapy and Wolpe’s behaviour therapy, described a number of mental imagery techniques that resemble Stoic premeditation.
