ABSTRACT
Stoicism and cognitive-behavioural therapy each embody a cognitive theory and therapy of emotional disturbance: cognitions are central to both the cause and cure of emotional disturbance. In Stoicism, the passions, or irrational emotions, are conceived of as emotionally-charged cognitions; they definitely embody beliefs, and are susceptible to disputation. Stoic psychotherapy is a process of replacing basic passions with basic rational emotions, which give rise to derivatives in their own right. Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy is based on the assumption that cognition, emotion, and behavior are not disparate human functions but are, instead, intrinsically integrated and holistic. The basic presupposition of Stoic ethics was that all animals are constituted by nature to act with self-interest, so that they tend to seek their own well-being and self-preservation through the pursuit of sensory pleasure and avoidance of sensory pain. Albert Ellis made a similar distinction in his philosophy between short-range and long-range hedonism, which he derives explicitly from Stoicism.
