Treating Grief with Philosophy (Reading in Seneca’s Consolation)

Abstract

He raised in my mind the idea of ​​this research, those great phrases that Seneca wrote from his exile to his mother (Philadelphia), as condolences to her for his separation, and how despite the pain he suffers from the pain of separation, he awakens her motivation and advises her with patience, adaptation of memories, and insistence on Study and learning, shielding philosophy and its means against the emotion of sadness, and transforming causes of misery into causes of happiness. Reminding her of the good things that nature and divine providence granted her, and he gives her an example of how he transformed the exile into a station for philosophical contemplation and consideration, it is a message from a philosopher; This means that it is not a message addressed only to his mother; Rather, to all mankind, a message from a philosopher who used to see the whole earth as his home and see himself as a citizen of the whole world. So, life was just as Seneca embodied it; A continuous therapeutic process, created by mental exercises to wean the mind from its crude confiscations, and the works of this philosopher describe the process of healing through which the reader can achieve virtue, and Seneca often involves the reader in this process ...