TED演讲：什么是悲伤？我们该如何面对？

TED是一家非盈利机构，该机构以它组织的TED大会著称。TED指技术、娱乐、设计英语中缩写，这三个广泛的领域共同塑造着我们的未来。TED演讲特点是开门见山、观点响亮、看法新颖、种类繁多、毫无繁杂冗长的专业讲座。每一个演讲都可以说是最值得传播的思想，互联网让这些闪光的、值得传播的思想在世界各地传播......而TED大会宗旨就是：用思想的力量来改变世界！

如果你是一个活着的、正在呼吸的人，那么在你的生命中，至少你有几次会感到悲伤。但究竟什么是忧郁，如果有的话，我们应该怎么办呢？考特尼·史蒂文斯详述了我们对悲伤的不断进化的理解。

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Sadness is part of the human experience, but for centuries there has been vast disagreement over exactly what it is and what, if anything, to do about it.

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。

In its simplest terms, sadness is often thought of as the natural reaction to a difficult situation.

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.

朋友搬走了或是宠物死了你都会感到悲伤。

When a friend says, "I'm sad," you often respond by asking, "What happened?"

当一个朋友说“我好伤心”时，你经常会问他们“发生什么了？”

But your assumption that sadness has an external cause outside the self is a relatively new idea.

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.

古希腊医生可不是这么看待悲伤的。

They believed it was a dark fluid inside the body.

他们觉得悲伤是体内一种深色的液体。

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.

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。

Melancholia comes from melaina kole, the word for black bile, the humor believed to cause sadness.

精神忧郁来自于一种叫Melaina Kole，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.

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。

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.

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.

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。

Like the Greek system, changing the balance of these chemicals can deeply alter how we respond to even extremely difficult circumstances.

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.

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。

If you've never felt melancholy, you've missed out on part of what it means to be human.

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.

许多学者反映，长智商的必要条件之一是忧郁。

Robert Burton, born in 1577, spent his life studying the causes and experience of sadness.

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。

In his masterpiece "The Anatomy of Melancholy," Burton wrote, "He that increaseth wisdom increaseth sorrow."

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.

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。

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.

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。

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

但智慧和情商看起来像是更高层次的需求。

Does sadness have value on a more basic, tangible, maybe even evolutionary level?

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.

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。

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.

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.

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。

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."

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-或者更容易面对一些。”

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.

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主观的体验。

Some contemporary thinkers aren't interested in sadness' subjectivity versus universality, and would rather use technology to eliminate suffering in all its forms.

有些当代思想家们对悲伤的主观性和普遍性的比较不是很感兴趣，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.

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。

He calls his project "paradise engineering."

他把他的项目叫做“天堂工程”。

But is there something sad about a world without sadness?

但一个没有悲伤的世界不是有点令人伤感吗？

Our cavemen ancestors and favorite poets might not want any part of such a paradise.

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。

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.

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.

用Emily Dickinson的话说，“希望是有翅膀的东西-在灵魂里窥视。

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

它歌唱着没有文字的旋律，而且永不停息。”

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