Donald Robertson

So they're able to choose intelligently between whether to confront a situation assertively or whether to back away from it and resign themselves to it with emotional acceptance.

A little bit like saying knowing when to pick your battles and things like that, you know, or knowing when it's better to distract yourself from pain or discomfort and when it would be better to address the cause or when it would be better to confront it and adapt to the experience and learn to accept it.

A little bit like saying knowing when to pick your battles and things like that, you know, or knowing when it's better to distract yourself from pain or discomfort and when it would be better to address the cause or when it would be better to confront it and adapt to the experience and learn to accept it.

A little bit like saying knowing when to pick your battles and things like that, you know, or knowing when it's better to distract yourself from pain or discomfort and when it would be better to address the cause or when it would be better to confront it and adapt to the experience and learn to accept it.

And by questioning, I mean, what we do in modern cognitive therapy, like often we'll find almost with every client, you'll find that they have coping strategies they've just made up themselves or coping strategies they've got from the internet or from self-help books.

And by questioning, I mean, what we do in modern cognitive therapy, like often we'll find almost with every client, you'll find that they have coping strategies they've just made up themselves or coping strategies they've got from the internet or from self-help books.

And by questioning, I mean, what we do in modern cognitive therapy, like often we'll find almost with every client, you'll find that they have coping strategies they've just made up themselves or coping strategies they've got from the internet or from self-help books.

In many cases, they'll be using these maladaptively in a way that's contributing to the problem and making it worse, usually because they're doing them too rigidly or they're using them as a kind of subtle form of avoidance that's actually contributing to the problem. And so one of the first things we might do is what's sometimes called a functional analysis.

In many cases, they'll be using these maladaptively in a way that's contributing to the problem and making it worse, usually because they're doing them too rigidly or they're using them as a kind of subtle form of avoidance that's actually contributing to the problem. And so one of the first things we might do is what's sometimes called a functional analysis.

In many cases, they'll be using these maladaptively in a way that's contributing to the problem and making it worse, usually because they're doing them too rigidly or they're using them as a kind of subtle form of avoidance that's actually contributing to the problem. And so one of the first things we might do is what's sometimes called a functional analysis.

So we'll get people to very carefully weigh up the pros and cons of the strategies they're using. And this kind of thinking things through, so cognitive therapy technique, is similar in some ways, I think, to using the Socratic method to question your definition of justice, for instance.

So we'll get people to very carefully weigh up the pros and cons of the strategies they're using. And this kind of thinking things through, so cognitive therapy technique, is similar in some ways, I think, to using the Socratic method to question your definition of justice, for instance.

So we'll get people to very carefully weigh up the pros and cons of the strategies they're using. And this kind of thinking things through, so cognitive therapy technique, is similar in some ways, I think, to using the Socratic method to question your definition of justice, for instance.

Or Socrates would also... I'll give you an example of a specific technique that kind of blew my mind when I read it. In Xenophon, and scholars, like classicists, never mention this because as a psychotherapist looking at the Socratic dialogues, I notice him doing psychological stuff that a philosopher or a classicist might not even...

Or Socrates would also... I'll give you an example of a specific technique that kind of blew my mind when I read it. In Xenophon, and scholars, like classicists, never mention this because as a psychotherapist looking at the Socratic dialogues, I notice him doing psychological stuff that a philosopher or a classicist might not even...

Or Socrates would also... I'll give you an example of a specific technique that kind of blew my mind when I read it. In Xenophon, and scholars, like classicists, never mention this because as a psychotherapist looking at the Socratic dialogues, I notice him doing psychological stuff that a philosopher or a classicist might not even...

you know like register so there's a bit in xenophon where socrates speaks to another young guy um in a shop in the agora and this dude is a self-help junkie as we call it today he literally has a collection he's got the finest collection in athens of self-improvement books he says he collects the maxims of wise men and he's trying to improve his character so that one day he can become a great statesman and he wants to understand the nature of morality or justice

you know like register so there's a bit in xenophon where socrates speaks to another young guy um in a shop in the agora and this dude is a self-help junkie as we call it today he literally has a collection he's got the finest collection in athens of self-improvement books he says he collects the maxims of wise men and he's trying to improve his character so that one day he can become a great statesman and he wants to understand the nature of morality or justice

you know like register so there's a bit in xenophon where socrates speaks to another young guy um in a shop in the agora and this dude is a self-help junkie as we call it today he literally has a collection he's got the finest collection in athens of self-improvement books he says he collects the maxims of wise men and he's trying to improve his character so that one day he can become a great statesman and he wants to understand the nature of morality or justice

And Socrates questions about the definition of justice and quickly shows that he doesn't really understand it. It's contradicting himself. And so this guy thinks, well, I've been reading all these books and tried to memorize what they say.