{"id":236,"date":"2026-09-21T19:59:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T19:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metisarchive.com\/?p=236"},"modified":"2026-09-21T19:59:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T19:59:39","slug":"fighting-back-is-not-repression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metisarchive.com\/?p=236","title":{"rendered":"Fighting back is not Repression"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was a teenager when I first learning about Stoicism. I had just begun reading philosophical works and was introduced to Epictetus, a former Greek slave. His writing in the Enchiridion became the fundamental core of stoicism: Focus your attention on what you can affect, and let go of that you cannot control<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alas, as an edgy novice, I took the message to be “Don’t feel emotion. Be fully rational.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spent a lot of time after that actively trying to repress any emotional impulses. I believed that emotion was an obstacle to progress, and we would be better off without it<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, I came to recognize two mistakes to my thought process:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mistake 1: Believing humans had the ability to repress emotions<\/strong>. <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We can trick ourselves into believing that we have wiped out emotions from our thought process, only to become blind to moments where our emotions affect us. The book “The Intelligence Trap” provides several examples of famous smart people making emotional decisions whilst believing that they were acting entirely rationally. One of my favorites is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (writer of Sherlock Holmes) really wanting fairies to be real and writing a logical defense of a fake photograph of fairies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we assume we are purely rational, we become blind to when emotion affects us<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mistake 2: Emotion is not a flaw, it is a symptom of our inner structure<\/strong>. <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Everyone has different “triggers” for lack of a better word: things that will cause an emotional response. For example, calling one person “stupid” will have no affect on one person, but will send another into a rage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One explanation for this difference is a difference in individual needs. We have adopted needs in our lives, that help make life meaningful and motivating. When those needs are threatened, we respond emotionally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our fears, and the messages we fear, often indicate that one of our needs is threatened. Like a mental detective, we can look into ourselves to recognize what that need is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being Stoic<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

All this is to say that I had some learning to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being “stoic” doesn’t mean we repress our emotions. It means we direct our attention to what can be done at the time, and actively work to let go of things our of our control. It is ultimately an active process that requires work, not a wall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A big step in that comes from coming to understand our needs, and how they are expressed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was a teenager when I first learning about Stoicism. I had just begun reading philosophical works and was introduced to Epictetus, a former Greek slave. His writing in the Enchiridion became the fundamental core of stoicism: Focus your attention on what you can affect, and let go of that you cannot control. Alas, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metisarchive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metisarchive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metisarchive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metisarchive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metisarchive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/metisarchive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238,"href":"https:\/\/metisarchive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions\/238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metisarchive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metisarchive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metisarchive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metisarchive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}