Phantasia Kataleptike | The Secret Skill of Stoic Philosophy

There's a concept in Stoic philosophy called Phantasia Kataleptike (fan-tah-see-ah kah-tah-leap-tea-keh) that doesn't get bandied about too much but is one of the secret weapons of putting Stoicism into action. Phantasia Kataleptike can be roughly translated into 'objective representation.'

Objective representation is the practice of describing events as objectively as possible. You might read that and think, "I'm not a robot. My experience is entirely subjective!" You're not wrong. We apply judgment to nearly everything we encounter. Building narratives is part of what it means to be human. It happens effortlessly.

Pausing to deconstruct events from the perspective of Phantasia Kataleptike, on the other hand, takes intention and effort. The repeated action builds the cognitive muscle of equanimity - calm and balance in the face of adversity.

It's also a tool for de-catastrophization.

Catastrophiziation isn’t just the demonstrative moaning of someone in room 3 that you might reflexively roll your eyes at; we all do it to some degree.

Acceptance of what is

At its core, Phantasia Kataleptike is a tool for acceptance. Acceptance of what is. 'Acceptance of what is’ is tricky because, on the surface, it can sound like defeat. But it's the opposite of defeat. Acceptance is caring deeply.

How do you know there’s acceptance? There is no struggle.

A dog and a cart

A simile speaks to this in The Enchiridion, one of Epictetus' (a famous Stoic philosopher) most important surviving texts.

Consider a dog tethered to a moving cart. The cart's movement is inevitable, and the dog has two choices: it can walk alongside the cart, accepting the direction and pace set by the cart, or resist - barking, whimpering, biting, and ultimately being dragged along.

The dog's decision to resist or walk alongside the cart parallels our ability to perceive and accept the reality of our circumstances.

When we face a clear and undeniable fact of life, akin to the dog recognizing the leash's pull and the cart's movement, we encounter a Phantasia Kataleptike moment.

Perception aligns with reality.

How do you reach a point of no struggle, accepting what, by some standards, would be distressing?

Language is the best place to start when talking about Phatasia Katalapitke—the language we use to communicate our impression of an event.

Going back to Stoicism’s core principles, when we look at what we control, it's our values, judgments, opinions, and initiation of action. Boil down even further; what we control is our attitude and where we put our attention.

The first thought that pops up in our mind is not in our control at all. It's just going to pop up. What we do with it - that's where we have control.

Our words make all the difference

The words we use impact those around us, but even more salient to this discussion is that those words impact us as well.

Say you get off a phone call with a consultant or another clinician. It’s contentious. You’ve used your complex conversation skills but are feeling HOT. You hang up the phone, and you look to your colleague who's sitting to your left, and you say, “What a f****** a******. I can't believe that sort of s*** is tolerated here. This is so unfair. How can I possibly work under these conditions?”

Your limbic system is fired up, and your reptilian brain is flashing, “Threat, threat!”

These intense emotions fuel the fire of the words coming out of your mouth, but if we flip that, the language used also fuels the fire of strong negative emotions.

And this is where Phantasia Katalpitke earns its keep.

Hamlet nailed it, "There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

The lost ship

Epictetus uses an example of a ship lost at sea. Imagine being on the ship's deck, with massive waves and driving rain. Things are not going according to plan. It would be easy to catastrophize. “Why me? This is awful! We're all going to die!” In the frame of Phantasia Kataleptike, after acknowledging the intense emotion that just arose, the inner description of the event might be, “We’re in a storm” or “The ship is lost.”

That can be a big ask in an unrelenting storm or a life-threatening situation, but it is attainable.

The A-hole in a Jaguar

Yesterday, a guy in a sports car was behind me in traffic, laying on a continual horn. I was tired, resilience stores were waning, and my fight-flight-freeze initial reaction was to fight back.

“That self-satisfied tennis shirt-wearing, Rolex sporting, Jaguar driving, smug bastard, laying on the horn behind me is a bovine fool!”

Just saying it a day later, I can feel the urge to give him a piece of my mind. But I was in the process of writing this article and needed to up my game,

“OK, settle.., I am feeling strong emotion. I am feeling angry.”

That’s the first Phantasia Kataleptike. Awareness of what is. Anger is felt.

Acceptance follows awareness. Let it be. Take a breath. The raw emotion and cortisol surge won’t simmer down in 10 seconds, but can I simmer it down just a hair so I can respond rather than reflexively react?

Next, shift Phantasia Kataleptike to the event itself. "That guy behind me is honking his horn." Or, even more pared down, "A horn is being honked."

In the moment, that de-escalated my negative emotions by about 15%. Words matter, even words unsaid. Especially words unsaid.

I was able to move on but I still felt riled up.

A few minutes later, I saw the same guy parked in a loading zone, blocking a delivery van.

Immediate reaction - what a selfish ass. I felt compelled to knock on his window and tell him what a colossal prick he was. That narrative bubbled up in about half a second.

First touch point of Phantasia Kataleptike? - emotion: I feel angry and aggressive.

Second touch point of Phantasia Katalapitke - the event: "He is parked in a loading zone." Pared down even more, "He is parked." Or, completely depersonalized, "The car is parked."

What would be the equivalent approach if we return to the contentious or conflict-ridden conversation with our consultant?

Something like, "The tone of that conversation was unfortunate, but I have no control over that other person's attitude or responses, " or even, “We disagreed on the best course of action.” Period.

Operationalizing Phantasia Kataleptike

This is a practice. It’s not – one day, you get your black belt, and you’re done. It takes continual attention, intention, and maintenance.

Note the automatic reaction

Awareness is the keystone of Phantasia Kataleptike. There will always be an automatic reaction to events. That reaction often has a narrative attached to it. When you become aware of a thought or narrative, you're halfway to #PhantasiaLivinBaby!

Valence | Awareness of emotion and narrative

One way to build awareness is to take note of the valance of our reactions. There are only three possibilities: positive, negative, and neutral.

Initial valence is automatic. It’s incredible how quickly this cycles. Next time you're at work (or driving, walking down the street, having a conversation) try noticing for 2 minutes how many different judgments there are of events.

It'll probably go something like this, "Great, sucks, meh, oh yeah, oy vey, fantastic, not again, no opinion, best ever, I hate this, I love this."

If you think you’ve got decision fatigue, wait til you notice judgment fatigue!

Noting the valence is one tool to build awareness of reaction - What's the narrative attached to that valence? Has a narrative captured me?

The Dichotomy of Control

The practice of breaking down events into what is and isn’t in our complete control is like rocket fuel for Phantasia Kataleptike.

Dichotomy of control: A core concept in Stoic philosophy that distinguishes between things that are within our power (our own thoughts, perceptions, and actions) and those that are not (external events, the actions of others). It emphasizes focusing on and taking responsibility for our own responses while accepting what we cannot change.

Take any event and ask, “What is in my complete control?” Our values, judgments, opinions, and initiation of action.

Dissecting the contentious consultant conversation:

What’s in my complete control?

• How I’m managing the shift
• My level of preparation for the call
• How I respond to personal jibes
• How I respond to discordance of disposition opinions

What’s not in my complete control?

• The kind of day that the other person is having
• Their level of overwhelm
• Trauma they might have had in childhood that impacts their interpersonal dynamics
• The bad case they just had
• The words they use
• THEIR opinions, values, and judgments

How to Think Like a Roman Emperor

I learned these next practices from Donald Robertson, author of one of my favorite books, How to Think Like a Roman Emperor. And in case you were wondering, it’s Marcus Aurelius, the great Stoic emperor, not Caligula, Commodus, Nero, or one of the horrors.

Actively de-catastrophizing.

Catastrophizing happens when we take an event and mentally turn it into a far worse scenario than it is. It's like viewing life through a lens that magnifies every setback into a disaster. The key to de-catastrophizing is to remove that lens and see the situation for what it really is without the added drama.

Imagine you've just lost your job. It's easy to slip into a narrative of, 'This is a disaster! My life is falling apart!'

With a de-catastrophizing approach, here's how we might reframe that situation, "I've lost my job, which means I'm now in a transition period. It's an opportunity for me to explore new roles and perhaps find something that aligns even better with my skills and interests."

At baseline, our brains tend to overestimate the severity and probability of adverse outcomes.

You might think, "I'll never find a job as good as the one I had. I'm going to run out of money." Instead, let's break it down and look at it realistically:

"The job market has ups and downs, but opportunities exist. I have skills and experience that are valuable. While it may take some time, the probability of finding a new role is quite high if I stay proactive in my search. In the meantime, I can manage my finances carefully to extend my runway."

De-catastrophizing doesn't mean ignoring the difficulties; it means understanding them in their proper scale and finding constructive ways to move forward.

Shifting from ‘what if’ to ‘why did’ to ‘so what?’ to ‘what’s next’

Often, our minds get tangled in 'What if' scenarios, imagining the worst possible outcomes.

'What if I fail?' 'What if things don't work out?' This cycle feeds anxiety. A helpful first step is to shift to 'Why did...' questions.

'Why did I react this way?' 'Why did this situation arise?' ‘Why did’ is an internal look, not trying to read another person's mind. You can never fully know why someone else acted as they did. It’s not ‘why did they’; it’s ‘why did I’ or ‘why did this’?

And then comes the liberating 'Of course, so what?.’ This acknowledgment is powerful. "So what if this happened? It's not the end of the world. I've faced challenges and can navigate through this one, too."

Now, the real magic, 'What's next.' Instead of dwelling on the worst-case scenario, ask yourself, "What realistically will most likely happen next?" Then, plan the next steps accordingly. And then what? Keep asking this to map a path forward, focusing on actionable steps rather than getting stuck in fear of the unknown. It doesn’t have to be future casting; it can be our own actions – what’s my next step?

(We dissected this skill in a previous podcast episode on balancing the Default Mode and Task Positive Networks—‘what’s next’ is almost like a brain hack that uses a shift toward action to pull out of a negative ruminative nose dive.)

Putting it all together - ‘what if’ ? ‘why did’ ? ‘so what?’ ? ‘what’s next.’

Imagine you're worried about a big presentation. The 'What if' mind says, 'What if I mess up? What if they don't like my ideas?' Shift to 'Why did I feel nervous? Because I care about my work and want to do well.' Then, 'Of course, it's natural to feel nervous before a presentation, so what? I've prepared well; even if it's imperfect, I'll learn from the experience.' Finally, 'What's next? I'll deliver the presentation, gather feedback, and use it to improve. And then, I'll prepare for the next challenge.'"

The Seesaw

If you like visualizations, picture a seesaw. On one end, place your assessment of a situation's severity—how threatening or daunting it seems. On the other, your confidence in your ability to handle it - your coping skills.

If you perceive the situation as overwhelmingly threatening, tipping the seesaw towards danger, feelings of stress and anxiety naturally escalate. Perceived threat dwarfs your sense of capability.

Conversely, when you view the challenge as manageable and trust in your ability to cope is strong, the seesaw tips are in your favor. This balance fosters a sense of calm and self-assurance, diminishing stress.

How do I balance the seesaw?

One way is to reflect on the mindset you want to adopt for this challenge. Determine what you can control and invest your energy there; let go of what you cannot control.

If you need help figuring out where to start, think about how someone you admire would handle the same situation or the advice they would give you.

Distanced or third-person self-talk

Using distanced or third-person self-talk means talking about yourself like you're someone else, using your name or pronouns like he, she, or they. This method, called 'distanced self-talk,' helps you step back and see things more clearly, almost like you're advising a friend.

fMRI data show this technique helps with self-control by providing mental space.

Distanced self-talk opens the gap between stimulus and response and can build Phantasia Katalaptike.

Example:

First-person inner dialogue, “I am so mad at that guy laying on the horn behind me, what a massive turd!”

Third-person inner dialogue, “Rob is feeling angry. The horn is getting to him.”

What to do when you're banished by the emperor

With a foundation of Phantasia Kataleptike, we can start seeing challenges as opportunities, much like the Stoic Paconius Agrippinus did. He turned every difficulty into a chance to display wisdom and strength.

Once, while dining with friends, he got the news that the emperor had just banished him. Without missing a beat, he said, "Very well, we'll have our lunch in Aricia," making his first step into exile just another part of his day. It wasn’t awful, it just was.

Awfulness, or the perception of badness, doesn't reside in the physical world. It's something we create. Aristotle said it so well, “Fire possesses the same properties in Greece as it does in Persia, yet what people deem good or bad differs from one culture to another.”

Our value judgments, then, are merely projections onto external circumstances.

The counterarguments

There are counterarguments to Phantasia Kataleptike, such as: doesn’t objective representation lead to emotional suppression or ignoring valid feelings?

It certainly could.

In some ways, Phantasia Kataleptike is a logic exercise, and logic does not best serve interpersonal emotional issues. If you are presented with emotion by another, a response of ‘you’re being illogical’ will not get you far. Empathy, however, will.

Also, this isn’t about suppressing emotion. Your own feelings are valid. Feelings are meant to be felt, as the saying goes. Phantasia Kataleptike is a tool for navigating our own conditioned responses and catastrophizations. It creates space between stimulus and response, building awareness and acceptance of the emotions rather than letting them completely take over.