Every Cognitive Distortion = Misjudging an External as Good/Bad

Every Cognitive Distortion = Misjudging an External as Good/Bad

This is precisely what Epictetus teaches. All emotional disturbance and cognitive error comes from assigning moral value to externals:

Common Distortions and Their External Misvaluations:

 - Catastrophizing: "Losing my job would be terrible" (job = good)

 - Personalization: "Their rejection harms me" (approval = good)

 - All-or-nothing: "Without success, I'm worthless" (success = good)

 - Mind-reading: "They think badly of me" (reputation = good)

 - Fortune-telling: "I'll fail and be ruined" (achievement = good)

- Emotional reasoning: "I feel ashamed, so I am bad" (social standing = good)

 - Should statements: "I must be liked" (being liked = good)

The Stoic Diagnosis:

Every single cognitive distortion involves:

 1. Taking something external (not up to us)

 2. Judging it as good or bad

 3. Suffering when reality doesn't match our false valuation

This Proves Sterling's Framework:

If cognitive health requires recognizing externals as indifferent, then:

 - Moral Realism must be true (there ARE objective facts about what's good/indifferent)

 - Correspondence Theory must operate (our judgments must match these facts)

 - Foundationalism must ground it ("only virtue is good" as bedrock)

The Therapeutic Implication:

Modern CBT unknowingly applies Stoic principles - challenging distortions means correcting false judgments about externals. But without Sterling's metaphysical commitments, CBT can't explain WHY these are distortions rather than just "unhelpful thoughts."

Sterling's framework shows they're distortions because they assign moral value where none objectively exists - they fail to correspond to moral reality.

Here are additional common cognitive distortions, Dave, each involving misjudging externals:

Additional Cognitive Distortions and Their External Misvaluations:

 - Filtering/Discounting positives: "The compliments don't matter, only criticism counts" (praise = meaningless, criticism = bad)

 - Magnification/Minimization: "My mistake is huge, my successes are nothing" (failure = evil, success = good)

 - Labeling: "I'm a total failure" (achievement = good, defines worth)

 - Control fallacies: "I must control everything" or "I'm helpless" (control = good)

 - Fallacy of fairness: "Life should be fair to me" (fair treatment = good)

 - Blaming: "Others are responsible for my feelings" (others' behavior = controls my good)

 - Always being right: "Being wrong is unbearable" (being right = good)

 - Reward fallacy: "If I work hard, I deserve success" (outcomes = good)

 - Change fallacy: "Others must change for me to be happy" (others' behavior = good)

 - Heaven's reward fallacy: "Good behavior guarantees good outcomes" (rewards = good)

 - Comparison: "I'm worse/better than others" (relative status = good/bad)

 - Regret orientation: "Past mistakes ruin everything" (past events = bad)

 - What-if thinking: "What if something bad happens?" (future security = good)

The Pattern is Universal:

Every single distortion involves taking something NOT up to us (external) and treating it as genuinely good or evil rather than indifferent. This is exactly what Epictetus identifies as the source of all disturbance.