Donald Robertson: “Philosophy Cured My Anger and Helped Me Control Stress and Social Anxiety”

For Donald Robertson, philosophy began as more than an academic interest. As a teenager dealing with anger, trouble at school and encounters with police, he found in it a sense of purpose and direction. “With philosophy, I cured my anger and learned to control my stress and social anxiety,” he says.\n\nRobertson, a Scottish writer and cognitive behavioral psychotherapist, explores that practical dimension in Think Like a Greek Philosopher. Despite its title, he says the book is not self-help. It is a historically and philosophically grounded biography of Socrates, built from Plato’s dialogues and Phaedo, the writings of Xenophon, Aristophanes’ satire The Clouds and other classical and contemporary material.\n\nHe describes the book as an attempt to make the Socratic method accessible and useful to as many people as possible. Socrates believed his work was not only philosophical but therapeutic, an idea that Robertson links to cognitive behavioral therapy. Both approaches, he argues, can help people examine their beliefs and responses rather than remain trapped by them.\n\nRobertson grew up in Ayr, Scotland, near Castlehill Wood and the ruins of Greenan Castle. He recalls corporal punishment at school, abuse at home and hurtful remarks from his father after the father developed cancer. Those experiences filled him with anger. After his father’s funeral, Robertson found philosophical references in books on Freemasonry in his father’s library. He did not understand much at first, but the discovery led him toward Plato, Pythagoras and the wider tradition that would shape his life and work.

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With philosophy, I cured my anger and learned to control my stress and social anxiety. But it also gave me tools to help others.