21 October 2023
The previous four blogs grappled with the foundations of Stoic ethics. Having outlined a more contemporary, Aristotelian, perspective on those foundations, it is time to move on to other elements underlying this system of thought. Again, I lean heavily on W.O. Stephens’ (October 2023) mercifully parsimonious description of these factors within the generous Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. For those readers wondering why this step-by-step dissection is important, the answer is that, as congruence is a primary value of applied psychology (psychotherapy), so is logical consistency of understanding a primary value of applied philosophy (eudaimonia or well-being). With less jargon, transparent steps to understanding facilitate rational discussion and learning.
In the blog of 23 September 2023, the purpose of this series was stated: to confront the values that the Stoics categorized as the “indifferents.” We are still not there but we are gaining ground.
Theory of Appropriation
As with, or perhaps based on, Aristotle’s differentia, the Stoics believed that what distinguishes humans from all other creatures is our ability to reason. In accordance with the last four blogs, if reason is our differentia, living in accord with nature is living in accord with our most essential selves, which means respecting our need of and capacity for reasoning. Stephens (2023) takes the reader into the Stoic implications of possessing reason. There were two opposite choices: affinity or alienation. If affinity prevails, self-love is the result; if not, alienation.
I believe that most regular readers of this blog are people from the addictive community, those who’ve lived addiction and those who’ve lived with loved ones living addiction. As such, these readers have probably recognized two psychological concepts that have been gaining ground for most of the 21st century: connection and self-compassion. Probably the most popular iteration of the connection argument came from Johan Hari’s (2015) TED Talk in which he stated that the opposite of addiction is not sobriety but connection. The timing of that argument could not have been much better as evidence of the harmful effects of cell phone based social media were emerging (Haidt, 2023 & Twenge, 2023) as was a related epidemic of loneliness. That’s why these issues are important.
Returning to Stephens (2023), the Stoics maintained that a young human goes through a two-stage self identification: first, infants and pre-teens identify with their bodies but as reason and understanding increase, emerging adults identify with their reasoned understandings of self and the world. The Stoics went on to harmonize that development and to recognize human reason as consonant (in agreement) with the cosmic or natural reason which was thought by Stoics to govern the universe. As the past four blogs argued, evidence-based thinking leaves humans alone with their reason as an evidence-based understanding of cosmology can easily be seen as more chaos than order.
There’s a ton in that last paragraph but the parts on which our focus is directed concern the pscyho-philosophical implications at work during each person’s transition from corpo (body)-centricity to psycho (soul)-centricity.
In past blogs (dates provided after each subject), themes like attachment (5 Nov 2022), boundaries (27 May 2023), growth needs (11 Feb – 1 Apr 2023), resilience (8- 22 Oct 2022) and self-knowledge (3 Mar – 7 Apr 2021) have been discussed. Every one of those five themes—and more—are in play during and immediately following each individual’s transition from corpo-centricity to psycho-centricity.
Those years constitute the flowering of identity formation. After all, the conceptual evolution—within and without—is about the understanding of the difference between I and thou, to use Buber’s (2000) language. If you have grown up in a broken home, an addictive home, a home with mental health challenges, or in a dysfunctional home, you begin your identity formation with a bruised soul resulting from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), (U.S. CDC, 2023). Not everyone who grows up in such homes shows these signs, as Meg Jay (2017) has ably described, but visible or invisible, the bruises are borne.
In fact, per the CDC (2023, Fast Facts) “ACEs are common. About 64% of U.S. adults reported they had experienced at least one type of ACE before age 18, and [just over] 1 in 6 (17.3%) reported they had experienced four or more types of ACEs. Preventing ACEs could potentially reduce many health conditions. For example, by preventing ACEs, up to 1.9 million heart disease cases and 21 million depression cases potentially could have been avoided.” Do you wonder why there is so much unhappiness, stress, and increasing chaos? This is one of the reasons. If 64% of people, in probably the most prosperous country in the world, have experienced ACEs, what kind of parenting are they likely to provide? I don’t ask that question to assign blame, I ask that question to increase awareness in all living generations.
If we return to the main theme of this blog, alienation versus affinity, I have presented some indicators of the numbers: roughly, two out of three people probably begin life with some degree of alienation—and I suspect those proportions are understated. As above, if affinity prevails, self-love is the result. Now we know that across the population, alienation prevails. Which is another excellent reason to withhold judgment of those suffering addiction. In my experience, an enormous proportion of addiction begins as a means of quelling pain—probably the pain of an alienation-driving ACE.
Dan Chalykoff is a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying). He works at CMHA-Hamilton and Healing Pathways Counselling, Oakville, where his focus is clients with addiction, trauma, burnout, and major life changes. He writes these blogs to increase (and share) his own evolving understanding of ideas. Since 2017, he has facilitated two voluntary weekly group meetings of SMART Recovery. Please email him (danchalykoff@hotmail.com) to be added to or removed from the Bcc’d emailing list.
References
Buber, M. (Tr. Smith, R. G.) (2000). I and thou. Scribner Classics.
Haidt, J. (2023, March 9). Why the mental health of liberal girls sank first and fastest: Evidence for Lukianoff’s reverse CBT hypothesis. https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2023, 20 October) Adverse Childhood Experiences
https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/fastfact.html
Hari, J. (2015, July 9). Everything You Think You Know About Addiction is Wrong [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY9DcIMGxMs
Jay, M. (2017). Supernormal: The secret world of the family hero. Twelve, Hachette Book Group.
Stephens, W. O. (2023, September 1). Stoic Ethics. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/stoiceth/#:~:text=All%20other%20things%20were%20judged,be%20used%20well%20and%20badly.
Twenge, J. M. (2023, March 15). Academic pressure cannot explain the mental illness epidemic: It’s not the homework. It’s the phones. https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com
White, E. (2011). Lonely: Learning to live with solitude. McClelland & Stewart.
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