118：A Different Kind of Self-Help

一種不同的自助方式

Whenever life deals us a blow—we lose a loved one, we get sick, we fail at an important endeavor—sadness or distress are entirely appropriate responses.

每當(dāng)生活給我們帶來打擊——我們失去了所愛的人，我們生病了，我們在一次重要的嘗試中失敗了——悲傷或痛苦是完全恰當(dāng)?shù)姆磻?yīng)。

deal sb/sth a blow 打擊

釋義：to cause sb or sth to fail or to be affected very badly

例句：The latest trade figures have dealt a severe blow to hopes of an economic recovery.（最近的貿(mào)易數(shù)據(jù)嚴(yán)重打擊了經(jīng)濟(jì)復(fù)蘇的希望）

distress n.悲傷

釋義：a feeling or extreme worry，sadness or pain

They come under the umbrella of what Freud called“ordinary unhappiness”;there’s nothing clinical about them and we don’t need to contact the psychiatrist.

它們屬于弗洛伊德所說的“普通不快樂”的范疇；他們沒有任何臨床癥狀，我們也不需要聯(lián)系精神病醫(yī)生。

When, however, our unhappiness grows wildly disproportionate even to minor blips—we become depressed for weeks if a blind date ghosts us,we feel on the verge of tears at the sight of a dying moth—then we might need therapy, whether chemical or conversational. We may well be painfully aware that such moods seem inexplicable. That’s why Andrew Solomon called the memoir of his own depression “The Noonday Demon.” He could see the light that surrounded his darkness—he knew that his life was in fact going well——but he just couldn’t get to it.

然而，當(dāng)我們的不開心增長嚴(yán)重不成比例時(shí)，即使是小插曲——如果相親對象突然不理人，我們便變得抑郁；看到一只垂死的飛蛾，我們幾乎要哭了——?那么我們可能需要治療，不管是化學(xué)療法還是會(huì)話療法。這就是為什么安德魯·所羅門稱為自己的抑郁癥的回憶錄“正午的惡魔。”他能看到包圍他的黑暗的光明——他知道他的生活實(shí)際上進(jìn)展得很順利——但他就是無法接近它。

disproportionate adj.不成比例的

釋義：too large or too small in comparison to sth else

例句：

There are a disproportionate number of girls in the class.（這個(gè)班上的女生人數(shù)不成比例。）

People on lower incomes spend a disproportionate amount of their incomes on fuel.（低收入人群在燃料上的花費(fèi)與其收入不成比例。）

minor adj.微小的

釋義：having little importance，influence，or effect，especially when compared with other things of the same type.

例句：

She suffered only minor injuries.（她只受了輕傷。）

It’s only a minor problem.（這只是一個(gè)小問題。）

blip n.屏幕上的光點(diǎn)；微不中道的小事

ghost v.突然斷絕關(guān)系 n.鬼

釋義：to end a relationship with sb suddenly by stopping all communication with them

on the verge of 接近于

例句：He was on the verge of saying something but stopped.（他欲言又止。）

moth n.飛蛾

memoir n.回憶錄

inexplicable adj.無法說明的，解釋不清的

釋義：unable to be explained or understood

例句：For some inexplicable reason, he’s decided to cancel the project.（由于某種無法解釋的原因，他決定取消這個(gè)項(xiàng)目。）

In “Night Vision: Seeing Ourselves Through Dark Moods,” the philosopher Mariana Alessandri offers a very different understanding of clinical mood disorders, one that at first seems like bad news but ultimately proves comforting, even uplifting.Far from being disproportionate reactions to life’s curve balls, Ms. Alessandri argues, dark moods are entirely appropriate responses to the human condition. Our date’s ghosting reminds us that love is always insecure. The dying moth warns us that life is fragile. If such events send us into a funk,well, that’s perfectly understandable.

在《夜視:透過黑暗情緒看自己》一書中，哲學(xué)家瑪麗安娜·亞歷山德羅對臨床情緒障礙提出了截然不同的理解，這起初似乎是個(gè)壞消息，但最終證明令人欣慰，甚至令人振奮。亞歷山德羅認(rèn)為，陰郁情緒絕不是對生活意外的過度反應(yīng)，而是對人類狀況的完全恰當(dāng)?shù)姆磻?yīng)。約會(huì)對象的“消失”提醒我們愛情總是沒有安全感的。垂死的飛蛾警告我們生命是脆弱的。如果這樣的事件讓我們陷入恐慌，那是完全可以理解的。

uplifting adj.令人振奮的

釋義：making sb feel better

disproportionate reaction 歧化反應(yīng)

curve ball 意外

釋義：sth such as a question or event that is surprising or unexpected, and therefore difficult to deal with

funk n.悲傷

釋義：the state of being unhappy and without hope

No less important, Ms. Alessandri says, popular therapeutic bromides mask this reality, pelting us with positivity, “one perky pebble at a time.” We might think that the “l(fā)ight” of therapy helps dispel the distorting darkness of melancholy. But often it’s the darkness of melancholy that reveals truths to which the light of therapy blinds us. Whatever the form of treatment—a revival of ancient Epicureanism or modern “positive psychology,” smiley-face self-help books or healing visualizations—the result is to make those afflicted by mood disorders feel “bad about feeling bad.”

亞歷山德里說，同樣重要的是，流行的治療陳詞濫調(diào)地掩蓋了這一事實(shí)，“一次一顆活潑的鵝卵石”地給我們投擲積極的情緒。我們可能認(rèn)為治療的“光明”有助于驅(qū)散抑郁的扭曲黑暗。但往往是憂郁的黑暗揭示了真相，治療的光芒蒙蔽了我們。無論哪種治療形式——古代享樂主義的復(fù)興或現(xiàn)代“積極心理學(xué)”、笑臉自助書籍或圖像治愈法——其結(jié)果都是讓那些受情緒障礙折磨的人感到“對感覺糟糕感到糟糕”。

therapeutic adj.治療的

bromide n.陳詞濫調(diào)

mask

v.掩飾，遮蓋

(to prevent sth from being seen or noticed)

n.口罩，面具，面膜

pelt v.投擲，扔

perky adj.活潑的

pebble n.鵝卵石

dispel v.驅(qū)散

melancholy n.悲傷，抑郁

revival n.復(fù)興，復(fù)蘇

釋義：An economic revival is sweeping the country.

Epicureanism n.享樂主義

healing adj.治愈的

visualization n.形象化，可視化

afflict v.折磨

釋義：a country afflicted by war

Ms. Alessandri is careful not to oppose all therapeutic intervention. As she acknowledges, “medicine has helped millions of people.” It’s just that the realities we face mean that no medicine will be powerful enough to “turn off” all of our pain. Instead we need to learn “to see in the dark.” Dark moods have their own value. They “give us access to connection, compassion, love,creativity, justice, motivation, and self-knowledge.” We shouldn’t be so desperate to get out of them.

亞歷山德里女士很小心，不反對所有的治療干預(yù)。正如她所承認(rèn)的，“醫(yī)學(xué)已經(jīng)幫助了數(shù)百萬人。”只是我們所面臨的現(xiàn)實(shí)意味著，沒有任何藥物能夠強(qiáng)大到足以“消除”我們所有的痛苦。相反，我們需要學(xué)會(huì)“在黑暗中看東西”。陰郁的情緒有其自身的價(jià)值。它們“讓我們獲得聯(lián)系、同情、愛、創(chuàng)造力、正義、動(dòng)力和自我認(rèn)識(shí)。我們不應(yīng)該這么不顧一切地想擺脫它們。

oppose v.反對

釋義：to disagree with sth or sb

例句：Most of the local residents opposed closing the school.（大部分當(dāng)?shù)鼐用穸挤磳﹃P(guān)閉學(xué)校。）

compassion n.同情，憐憫

釋義：a strong feeling of sympathy and sadness for the suffering of others and a wish to help them

Ms.Alessandri makes her argument through a series of biographical sketches.The Spanish writer Miguel de Unamuno(1864-1936)， who lost his 6-year old son to meningitis, used his own suffering to cultivate a deep, life-long compassion for the vulnerability of others. When C.S. Lewis's wife Joy Davidman died, his grief enabled him to reach new understandings of God,love and memory. As for the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, he came to see his constant anxiety as a fully appropriate reaction to human freedom. If we are responsible for our own choices, Kierkegaard reasoned, then how can we ever avoid the daily worry that we are making the wrong call? It goes with the exitential territory.

亞歷山德里通過一系列傳記概述闡述了自己的觀點(diǎn)。西班牙作家米格爾·德·烏納穆諾(1864-1936)因腦膜炎失去了6歲的兒子，他用自己的痛苦培養(yǎng)了對他人脆弱性的深切、終生的同情。當(dāng)C.S .劉易斯的妻子喬伊·大衛(wèi)曼去世時(shí)，他的悲痛使他對上帝、愛和記憶有了新的理解。至于丹麥哲學(xué)家索倫·克爾凱郭爾，他認(rèn)為自己持續(xù)的焦慮是對人類自由的完全恰當(dāng)?shù)姆磻?yīng)?？藸杽P郭爾認(rèn)為，如果我們要對自己的選擇負(fù)責(zé)，那么我們怎么能避免每天都擔(dān)心自己做出了錯(cuò)誤的決定呢?它與存在主義領(lǐng)域有關(guān)。

biographical sketch 簡短的傳記，小傳

meningitis n.腦膜炎

cultivate v.培養(yǎng)

grief n.悲傷，悲痛

釋義：great sadness, especially at the death of sb

existential adj.存在主義的

And then there is the Mexican-American scholar Gloria Anzaldúa (1942-2004), who was made to feel shiftless and lazy by family and friends for abandoning her destined life as a farm worker. Treating her consequent depression as a portal to self-knowledge, she gradually realized that the path she chose, in which she wrote books that helped others in their struggles, was one of comparable industriousness and productivity.

墨西哥裔美國學(xué)者Gloria Anzaldúa (1942-2004)，由于放棄了她和家人朋友注定的農(nóng)場工人生活而感到無能和懶惰。她將隨之而來的抑郁視為自我認(rèn)識(shí)的門戶，并逐漸意識(shí)到她選擇的道路——她寫書幫助別人擺脫困境——是一條勤奮和生產(chǎn)力之一。

shiftless adj.懶惰的

destined adj.命中注定的；指定的

portal n.大門，門戶

comparable adj.類似的，可比較的

釋義：similar in size, amount or quality to sth else

例句：

The girls are of comparable ages.（這些女孩的年齡相仿。）

Our prices are comparable to/with those in other shops.

industriousness n.勤奮，勤勉

Ms. Alessandri relates these stories with insight and sensitivity. In doing so she makes a persuasive case against the superficiality of “don’t worry, be happy” peppiness. Even so, her governing imagery of darkness versus light misses something important.

Alessandri女士將這些故事與洞察力和敏銳建立了關(guān)聯(lián)。在這樣做的過程中，她提出了一個(gè)有說服力的例子，反對“不要擔(dān)心，要快樂”這種膚淺的樂觀態(tài)度。即使如此，她關(guān)于黑暗與光明的主導(dǎo)意象遺漏了一些重要的東西。

superficiality n.淺薄，膚淺

peppiness n.活潑，精力充沛

In the grip of mood disorders, many of us are apt to liken the experience not so much to darkness as to grayness. The writer Barbara Ehrenreich, for example, saw her own depression as a “gray fog.” This makes a difference. It might be possible, over time to learn to see in darkness. But it's not possible, even over time, to learn to see in fog.Yes, bouts with melancholy enabled the figures Ms.Alessandri discusses to perceive truths that they might otherwise never have gleaned. But that's not necessarily a common experience. For many, all they can see is their own misery, especially since depression,anxiety and grief can descend simultaneously, blurring into one another and sharing similar symptoms.

在情緒障礙的控制下，我們中的許多人傾向于把這種經(jīng)歷比作灰色，而不是黑暗。例如，作家芭芭拉·埃倫賴希就把自己的抑郁看成是一團(tuán)“霧靄”。這是有區(qū)別的。隨著時(shí)間的推移，我們有可能學(xué)會(huì)在黑暗中看清事物。但是，即使隨著時(shí)間的推移，也不可能學(xué)會(huì)在霧中看清事物。是的，抑郁的發(fā)作使亞歷山德里女士所討論的這些人物能夠感知到原本可能永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)收集到的真相。但這并不一定是一種普遍的經(jīng)歷。對許多人來說，他們只能看到自己的痛苦，尤其是因?yàn)橐钟?、焦慮和悲傷可以同時(shí)降臨，彼此模糊，并有相似的癥狀。

in the grip of 陷入，被...控制

釋義：to be experiencing sth unpleasant that you have no control over

例句：The country is currently in the grip of the worst recession in 20 years(這個(gè)國家目前正在經(jīng)歷20年來最嚴(yán)重的衰退。)

apt to 有...的傾向

釋義：to be likely to do sth

liken v.把...比作

bout n.發(fā)作，發(fā)病期

glean v.收集

descend v.籠罩，降臨

例句：

Silence/Darkness descended on the room.

A feeling of despair descended on as we realized that we were lost.(當(dāng)我們意識(shí)到我們迷路時(shí)，一種絕望的感覺降臨了。)

blur v.模糊

例句：This film blurs the line/distinction/boundary between reality and fantasy.（這部電影模糊了現(xiàn)實(shí)與幻想之間的界限/區(qū)別/界限。）

Nor is light necessarily the best metaphor for what happiness therapists are trying to provide. When people are in a gray fog, what they are longing for—so they will often say—is not light but color. This too makes a difference. We perceive light as monochromatic, while color comes in a variety of shades. And so do positive moods, from the hot “orange” of joyful exuberance, as the psychologist Marvin Levine describes it, to the cool “purple” of relaxed tranquility. Even in the excitement we feel as we close in on a goal, we often long for the relaxation we will experience once we succeed.As soon as we are able to relax, we miss the excitement we once had. While we are quite capable of complete misery, as Ms. Alessandri herself notes, complete contentment is difficult to attain.

光也不一定是治療師試圖提供快樂的最好的隱喻。當(dāng)人們置身于灰色的霧中時(shí)，他們所渴望的——他們常說——不是光，而是色彩。這也有所不同。我們認(rèn)為光是單色的，而顏色則有各種的色調(diào)。積極的情緒也是如此，從心理學(xué)家馬文·萊文描述的快樂旺盛的熱“橙色”，到放松寧靜的冷“紫色”。即使在我們接近目標(biāo)時(shí)感到興奮，我們也常常渴望成功后的放松。一旦我們能夠放松，我們就會(huì)想念我們曾經(jīng)擁有的興奮。正如亞歷山德里女士自己指出的那樣，雖然我們完全有能力經(jīng)歷完全的痛苦，但完全的滿足很難實(shí)現(xiàn)。

metaphor n.隱喻，暗喻

例句：Metaphor and simile are the most commonly used figures of speech in everyday language.（隱喻和明喻是日常語言中最常用的修辭手法。）

long for 渴望

perceive v.察覺，認(rèn)為

釋義：to come to an opinion about sth, or have a belief about sth

例句：New technology was perceived as/to be a threat to employment.（新科技被視作為對就業(yè)構(gòu)成的一種威脅。）

monochromatic adj.單色的

exuberance n.精力充沛的

tranquility n.寧靜

close in 接近，逼近

contentment n.滿足，滿意

=happiness and satisfaction

attain v.獲得 實(shí)現(xiàn)

釋義：to reach or succeed in getting sth=achieve

例句：We need to identify the best ways of attaining our objectives.

Ms. Alessandri criticizes happiness therapists for trying to “suppress, deny,and reject” unhappiness.But many are attempting,not always successfully,something else: getting us to value, prolong and savor whatever happiness we can achieve without itching for more. The Epicureans recommended that we restrict our desires to food, drink,music, nature, and spending time with family and friends. Such easily accessible pleasures,they reasoned, suffice to bring us the entire range of happy feelings, from exuberance to tranquility. We don’t need anything further. Modern positive psychologists, in the same vein, advise us to pursue goals that are lofty but not too lofty: challenging enough to keep us excited yet sufficiently within reach to keep us relaxed. Such mid-range activities, they argu,stave off both the depression we risk when our accomplishments seem too mundane and the anxiety we feel when our pursuits seem too daunting.

亞歷山德里批評(píng)心理治療師試圖“壓抑、否認(rèn)和抗拒”不開心。但也有很多治療師在嘗試別的東西，但并不總是成功:讓我們珍惜、延長和享受我們所能獲得的任何幸福，而不是渴望更多。享樂派建議我們將欲望限制在食物、飲料、音樂、自然以及與家人和朋友共度的時(shí)光上。他們認(rèn)為，這些簡單易得的快樂足以給我們帶來充盈的幸福感，從精力充沛到平和寧靜。我們不需要追求更多的東西了。現(xiàn)代積極心理學(xué)家也持同樣的觀點(diǎn)，建議我們追求崇高但又不太崇高的目標(biāo):既要有足夠的挑戰(zhàn)性，讓我們興奮，又要足夠觸手可及，讓我們放松。他們認(rèn)為，這種中等程度活動(dòng)既可以避免當(dāng)我們的成就看起來太平庸時(shí)我們所冒的抑郁風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，也可以避免當(dāng)我們的追求看起來太令人生畏時(shí)我們所感到的焦慮。

suppress v.克制，抑制

釋義:to prevent sth from being seen or expressed

例句：She couldn’t suppress her anger/delight.

prolong v.延長

釋義：to make sth last a longer time

savor v.盡情享受

例句：to enjoy food or an experience slowly, in order to enjoy it as much as possible

例句：We should savor everything that life has to offer.

itch v.&n.渴望；癢

suffice v.足夠(sufficient adj.)

vein n.靜脈

lofty adj.崇高的，高尚的

stave off 避開

mundane adj.平凡的，平庸的

釋義：very ordinary and therefore not interesting

例句：The film was a mundane family sitcom.（電影是一部平庸的家庭喜劇。）

daunting adj.艱巨的，使人畏懼的

例句：Reforming the welfare system is a daunting task.（改革福利制度是一項(xiàng)艱巨的任務(wù)。）

If we could learn to be more satisfied with what might be called “ordinary happiness,’then maybe we would suffer less depression and anxiety. That, at any rate,is the presumption of much therapy, ancientand modern.Ms.Alessandri certainly does us a service in calling attention to the value of dark moods. We do need better nightvision. But we need better color vision too.

如果我們能學(xué)會(huì)更多地滿足于所謂的“平凡的小確幸”，那么也許我們就不會(huì)那么抑郁和焦慮了。無論如何，這是許多治療方法的假設(shè)，無論是古代的還是現(xiàn)代的。亞歷山德里女士在喚起人們對陰郁情緒價(jià)值的關(guān)注方面確實(shí)為我們做出了貢獻(xiàn)。我們確實(shí)需要更好的夜視能力。但是我們也需要更好的色覺。

presumption n.推測，設(shè)想

釋義：the act of believing that sth is true without having any proof

例句：

The presumption of innocence is central to American law.（疑罪從無是美國法律的核心。）

There is no scientific evidence to support such presumptions.（這些推測是沒有科學(xué)依據(jù)的。）

at any rate 無論如何，至少

釋義：whatever happens