As a philosophical counseling approach, LBT also applies philosophical antidotes derived from the philosophies of antiquity to help clients strive toward their transcendent virtues. For example, the Kantian categorical imperative that says to "treat oneself and others as ends in themselves and not as mere means" can be used as an antidote to damnation of self or others, and thus as a sort of recipe to attaining the transcendent virtue of respect for self and others. Similarly, Frederich Nietzsche's theory about human suffering, which says that suffering can make one stronger and nobler, can be used as an antidote to catastrophic thinking ("Awfulizing") about personal loss, thereby building courage in confronting the loss and using it to create new positive meanings and values in one's existence.
