Does Stoicism Actually Work When Things Go Wrong?

The easiest thing to do with Stoicism is to sell it. The internet is full of Marcus Aurelius quotes turned into motivational graphics, Stoic “techniques” packaged into five-step frameworks, promises that ancient philosophy will deliver the equanimity and resilience your therapy hasn’t. Derren Brown is not interested in any of that. “We can only judge a school of thought or a philosophy by how well it serves us when things don’t go well,” he says in his Rebind commentary on The Meditations. That is his test. And he applies it honestly, including to himself.

His verdict, after decades of practice: Stoicism mostly passes. The “one foot outside the feeling” move works on depression; “high intention, low expectation” works on performance anxiety. Where it fails him (nightly, by his own admission) is the specific sting of social humiliation.