This book presents the first detailed analysis of the way Greek philosophers treated mental conflict. The ancient Greeks considered mental conflict as the condition of a divided mind consciously torn between contrary desires or beliefs. Greek philosophers offered a variety of formulations for mental conflict, either as a reason that fails to be resolute or as a split soul that houses a play of forces.

Studying the treatment of mental conflict by Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics, A. W. Price demonstrates how the arguments of the Greeks are still relevant to current philosophical discussion. Reflecting upon their accounts can alert us to the elusiveness at once of mental reality and of the understanding by which we hope to capture and transform it.