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Overcoming Victimhood: Stoicism, Anti-Stoicism And Le Fils, Damian Cox

Damian Cox

In this chapter I use a film by the Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Le Fils (2002), to explore the difference between Stoic and Anti-Stoic approaches to overcoming victimhood. The Stoic approach to overcoming victimhood emphasizes the inner-strength and resourcefulness of victims. It sets up an ideal of Stoic independence in which a person responds to becoming a victim by marshalling inner resources to overcome destructive and painful emotions. An Anti-Stoic approach to overcoming victimhood rejects such an appeal to independence and acknowledges that victims do not generally possess the inner resources needed to eliminate destructive and painful emotions. …