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Voluntary Control of ‘Involuntary’ Functions: The Approach of the Stoics
Author(s) -
McMahon C. E.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1974.tb01140.x
Subject(s) - psychology , context (archaeology) , control (management) , power (physics) , cognitive psychology , social psychology , epistemology , philosophy , paleontology , physics , management , quantum mechanics , economics , biology
The Stoics expressed great concern about emotion related psychophysiological phenomena as pathological states of body and spirit. They outlined procedures through which all bodily functions could be brought under voluntary control. The Pneumatist School of Medicine of the first century A.D. adopted these philosophical convictions and instituted them in their diagnostic and treatment techniques for psychosomatic disorders. Pneumatic theory, and its application in this context, is described. How easy it is to repel and to wipe away every impression which is troublesome or unsuitable, and immediately to be in all tranquility…. Nature has not so mingled the intelligence with the composition of the body, as not to have allowed thee the power of circumscribing thyself and of bringing under submission to thyself all that is thy own. Marcus Aurelius