A brief history of melancholy

忧郁简史

来源视频

Sadness is part of the human experience,

but for centuries there has  been vast disagreement

over what exactly it is and what, if anything, to do about it.

In its simplest terms,

sadness is often thought of

as the natural reaction  to a difficult situation.

悲伤是人类必经的感受

但几个世纪以来，人们既没有判断出它到底是什么

也不知我们应该以怎样的态度去面对它

简单来说

悲伤常被人们理解为

面对艰难处境时的自然反应

You feel sad when a friend moves away or when a pet dies.

When a friend says, "I'm sad,"

you often respond by asking, "What happened?"

But your assumption that sadness has an external cause outside the self

is a relatively new idea.

朋友搬走了或是宠物死了你都会感到悲伤

当一个朋友说“我好伤心”时

你经常会问他们“发生什么了？”

但你对于悲伤是由外界因素导致的假设

还是个比较新的想法

Ancient Greek doctors didn't view sadness that way.

They believed it was a dark fluid inside the body.

According to their humoral system,

the human body and soul were controlled by four fluids, known as humors,

and their balance directly influenced a person's health and temperament.

Melancholia comes from melaina kole,

the word for black bile, the humor believed to cause sadness.

古希腊医生可不是这么看待悲伤的

他们觉得悲伤是体内一种深色的液体

根据他们创造的体液系统理论

人体和灵魂是由四种体液控制的

于是它们之间的平衡会直接影响到一个人的健康和性情

精神忧郁来自于一种叫Melaina Kole 的东西

也就是黑胆汁，一种被认为会产生悲伤的体液

By changing your diet and through medical practices,

you could bring your humors into balance.

Even though we now know much more about the systems

that govern the human body,

these Greek ideas about sadness

resonate with current views,

not on the sadness we all occasionally feel,

but on clinical depression.

改善伙食和医疗手段

都可以有效地使你的体液处于平衡状态

虽然现在我们对控制人类身体的系统

了解已经很多了

这些古希腊人有关于悲伤的想法

还是可以和当今的观点产生共鸣

不仅仅是我们偶尔会感到的悲伤

也包括医学上所说的忧郁

Doctors believe that certain  kinds of long-term, unexplained emotional states are at least partially related to brain chemistry, the balance of various chemicals  present inside the brain.

Like the Greek system,

changing the balance of these chemicals can deeply alter

how we respond to even extremely difficult circumstances.

医生们认为有些长期无法解释的感情状态和大脑内部各种化学物质的平衡多少有些关系

像希腊的体液系统理论

改变这些物质的平衡就可以甚至可以深刻地影响到

我们面对极端困难环境时的反应

There's also a long tradition of attempting to discern

the value of sadness,

and in that discussion,

you'll find a strong argument that sadness is not only

an inevitable part of life but an essential one.

If you've never felt melancholy,

you've missed out on part of what it means to be human.

长久以来，我们不断地尝试去无视掉

悲伤的价值

但在以下的讨论中

你会发现一个强有力的证据说

悲伤不仅仅是生命中无法避免的一部分

而且还是不可或缺的一部分

如果你从来没有感受过忧郁

那你已经失去了一部分作为人类的意义

Many thinkers contend that melancholy is necessary in gaining wisdom.

Robert Burton, born in 1577,

spent his life studying the causes and experience of sadness.

In his masterpiece "The Anatomy of Melancholy,"

Burton wrote, "He that increaseth wisdom increaseth sorrow."

许多学者反映，长智商的必要条件之一是忧郁

1577年出生的Robert Burton

贡献了一生的时间研究悲伤的起因和过程

在他的著作The Anatomy of Melancholy中

他写道：“积累智慧的同时也会积累忧伤。”

The Romantic poets of  the early 19th century

believed melancholy allows us to more deeply understand other profound emotions,

like beauty and joy.

To understand the sadness of the trees losing their leaves in the fall

is to more fully understand the cycle of life that brings flowers in the spring.

But wisdom and emotional intelligence seem pretty high on the hierarchy of needs.

Does sadness have value on a more basic, tangible,

maybe even evolutionary level?

19世纪初期的浪漫主义诗人们

相信忧郁可以使我们更很深刻地了解其他深沉的感受

比如说美好和快乐。

要了解秋季黄叶满地的忧伤

就是更完善地认识可以带来春花的生命周期。

但智慧和情商看起来像是更高层次的需求。

那悲伤在更基础可触，或甚至是进化的层面

有没有价值？

Scientists think that crying and feeling withdrawn

is what originally helped our ancestors secure social bonds

and helped them get the support they needed.

Sadness, as opposed to anger or violence, was an expression of suffering

that could immediately bring people closer to the suffering person,

and this helped both the person and the larger community to thrive.

科学家认为哭泣以及沉默寡言

是最初帮助我们祖先之间牢牢建立社会关系

并帮助他们寻求到他们所需要的支持的

和愤怒和暴力不同，悲伤是可以立马唤起别人同情的

痛苦的表现，人与人之间距离一下子就近了

这样，双方都会得到帮助，更大的群体也会得以发展壮大

Perhaps sadness helped generate the unity we needed to survive,

but many have wondered whether the suffering felt by others

is anything like the suffering we experience ourselves.

The poet Emily Dickinson wrote,

"I measure every Grief I meet With narrow, probing Eyes -

I wonder if it weighs like MIne - Or has an Easier size."

也许，悲伤可以产生我们生存所需的集体感

但很多人都在想，别人所感受到的痛苦

和我们所感受到的是否一样。

诗人Emily Dickinson写道，

“我眯着眼视察每个我所遇见的悲痛-

心想它是否和我的一样重-或者只是小如橡皮。”

And in the 20th century,

 

medical anthropologists, like Arthur Kleinman,

 

gathered evidence from the way people talk about pain

 

to suggest that emotions aren't universal at all,

 

and that culture, particularly the way we use language,

 

can influence how we feel.

在20世纪

 

像Arthur Kleinman这样的人类医学家

 

收集了人们阐述自己悲伤的方式作为证据

 

来证明感情其实根本不是普遍的

 

而且文化，尤其是我们使用语言的方式

 

都会影响到我们所感所受

When we talk about heartbreak,

 

the feeling of brokenness  becomes part of our experience,

 

where as in a culture that talks  about a bruised heart,

 

there actually seems to be a different subjective experience.

 

Some contemporary thinkers  aren't interested

 

in sadness' subjectivity  versus universality,

 

and would rather use technology to eliminate suffering in all its forms.

当我们说到心碎时

 

破碎的感觉就变成了我们体验的一部分

 

但是当另一个文化说起淤血的心时

 

这其实好像又有另外一种客观的体验

 

有些当代思想家们对悲伤的客观性和普遍性不是很感兴趣

 

而且他们会更愿意用科技去消除各种形态的痛苦

David Pearce has suggested that genetic engineering

 

and other contemporary processes

 

cannot only alter the way humans experience emotional and physical pain,

 

but that world ecosystems  ought to be redesigned

 

so that animals don't suffer in the wild.

 

He calls his project  "paradise engineering."

David Pearce觉得，基因工程

 

和其它当代的科学手段

 

不应该只改变人们历经精神上和身体上的伤痛

 

而应把世界的生态系统都重新设计一遍

 

那样野生动物也不会受苦难

 

他把他的项目叫做“天堂工程”

But is there something sad about a world without sadness?

 

Our cavemen ancestors and favorite poets

 

might not want any part  of such a paradise.

 

In fact, the only things about sadness that seem universally agreed upon

 

are that it has been felt by most people throughout time,

 

and that for thousands of years,

 

one of the best ways we have to deal with this difficult emotion

 

is to articulate it, to try to express what feels inexpressable.

但一个没有悲伤的世界不是有点令人伤感吗？

 

我们的山顶洞人始祖们和最受人喜爱的诗人

 

可不会想在这样的一个天堂里

 

其实，关于悲伤唯一一些大家都同意的是

 

几乎所有历史上的人都曾感受过

 

而且几千年来

 

人们面对艰难的感情时最好的方式

 

就是把它说出来，试着讲述讲不出的东西

In the words of Emily Dickinson,

 

"'Hope' is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul -

 

"And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all -"

用Emily Dickinson的话说，

 

“’希望‘是有翅膀的东西-在灵魂里窥视

 

“它歌唱着没有文字的旋律-而且永不停息-”