Ataraxia can be associated with calm and balance.
The concept of ataraxia is used in philosophy to refer to a serene and calm mood . Various philosophical currents defend ataraxia as the emotional disposition that leads the person to distance themselves from disturbances to achieve happiness .
Ataraxia requires regulating passions and being strong enough in the face of adversity to lead a balanced and placid life. This peace of mind is achieved when the individual manages to avoid unnecessary pleasures , which cause intense pain after the initial satisfaction.
Ataraxia according to different currents
Epicureanism , for example, distinguished between natural and necessary pleasures (linked to subsistence); pleasures that, despite being natural, are unnecessary (since they involve superficial alterations of necessary pleasures); and pleasures that are neither natural nor necessary (arising from ego or ambition). Ataraxia as a path to happiness requires only obeying the first type of pleasures (the natural and necessary ones), discarding the rest.
According to the view of skeptics , ataraxia is achieved by suspending judgment about things. When a person does not believe in anything, he avoids conflicts and keeps his spirit calm.
The Stoics , for their part, believed that ataraxia was a consequence of a life governed by virtue and reason. Stoicism was the last major school of philosophy, and existed until 529 AD. C., when the School of Athens was closed by the emperor Justinian. Buddhism also promotes ataraxia, maintaining that the absence of desire prevents pain .
Ataraxia can be linked to relaxation.
The concept in medicine
From a physical point of view, medicine calls ataraxia a condition that can appear as a result of having received a strong blow to the front of the head or having suffered a stroke (a morbid attack that occurs violently and suddenly; some Examples are "epileptic stroke" and "apoplectic stroke").
It is curious that while philosophy presents the concept as a method to achieve happiness and fulfillment, medicine uses the same term to name a health problem. In both cases, the word imperturbable seems to be key, either due to having achieved absolute serenity or due to the lack of response to external stimuli.
Ataraxia, imperturbability and trauma
For Greek philosophy, ataraxia is synonymous with imperturbability, a state of soul and mind that does not admit the entry of suffering or disturbing emotions, such as anger.
In the case of ataraxia caused by a stroke, medicine explains that patients do not know or accept limits and rules , since they lose that capacity and act in a way that does not take into account the consequences . Of course, this does not come alone: often those affected by ataraxia are haunted by feelings of guilt because of their actions.
Although ataraxia as a result of trauma entails the impossibility of feeling frustration , a very particular contradiction occurs, since there is room for nervousness and anxiety , and not for joy and spontaneity.
Returning to ataraxia in the philosophical sense, the Greeks considered it a spiritual objective to achieve a state of passivity and apathy that would allow them to live in absolute calm. To do this, as mentioned above, it is necessary to avoid both actions and feelings, at least everything that can disturb us and cause us to lose concentration on our goal .
Other uses of the concept
Ataraxia , on the other hand, is the name of a comic, a song by the Chilean group Dr. Vena and an Italian gothic music band.
As can be seen, the notion has uses in different areas. That's why you have to pay attention to the context to understand what it means.