A Teacher
Donald Robertson
Stoicism as the philosophical root of cognitive therapy
The transmission
Donald J. Robertson (born 1976) is a Scottish-born cognitive-behavioural psychotherapist, trainer, and author who has done more than almost anyone to document the historical and conceptual link between ancient Stoicism and modern cognitive therapy.
Born in Ayr, Scotland, he worked for many years in London before later emigrating to Canada. His 2010 book The Philosophy of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy set out the case that the founders of CBT, Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck, drew directly on Stoic sources, especially Epictetus’s claim that we are disturbed not by events but by our judgments of them.
Robertson’s best-known book, How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius (2019), blends biography, philosophy, and psychotherapeutic technique, using the life and Meditations of Marcus Aurelius to illustrate Stoic practices and their modern therapeutic equivalents.
A co-founder of the Modern Stoicism organization and its annual “Stoic Week,” he has been central to presenting Stoicism as an evidence-aligned discipline rather than a mere lifestyle brand. For the mind-power lineage, Robertson is the cleanest bridge between the ancient claim that judgment, not event, produces suffering and the clinically validated practice of cognitive restructuring that grew from it.
What they gave
Stoicism-CBT lineage: Documents in detail how cognitive therapy’s founders built on Stoic premises about judgment and emotion.
- Marcus Aurelius as case study: Uses the emperor’s life and Meditations to show Stoic psychological techniques in practice.
- Therapeutic translation: Maps ancient Stoic exercises onto modern, clinically grounded methods of changing thought and response.
- Building the movement: Co-founds Modern Stoicism and Stoic Week, organizing Stoic practice as a contemporary, evidence-aware discipline.
In their words
The year is 180 AD. As another long and difficult winter draws to a close on the northern frontier, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius lies dying in bed at his military camp in Vindobona (modern-day Vienna).
What matters, in other words, isn’t what we feel but how we respond to those feelings.
We don’t control our initial reaction, perhaps, but we do control how we respond to it: it’s not what happens first that matters but what you do next.
To learn how to die, according to the Stoics, is to unlearn how to be a slave.
The Stoics can teach you how to find a sense of purpose in life, how to face adversity, how to conquer anger within yourself, moderate your desires, experience healthy sources of joy, endure pain and illness patiently and with dignity, exhibit courage in the face of your anxieties, cope with loss, and perhaps even confront your own mortality while remaining as unperturbed as Socrates.
The line they stand in
Influenced by: Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius; the cognitive therapists Albert Ellis (REBT) and Aaron Beck (CBT); the “philosophy as a way of life” scholarship of Pierre Hadot.
- Influenced: The modern Stoicism movement; the ongoing integration of Stoicism and CBT; the Stoic Week / Stoa practitioner community.
Revelations they taught
Essential Works
- The Philosophy of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy2010
- How to Think Like a Roman Emperor2019