独处的利弊 | 经济学人文化

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Cece，消防人+经济学人粉丝

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Culture | All by myself

文化 | 独自一人

英文部分选自经济学人20230413期文化板块

Culture | All by myself

文化 | 独自一人

The drawbacks—and benefits—of solitude

独处的弊与益

Three books examine the perils and pleasures of being alone

三本书探讨了独处的危险和乐趣

All the Lonely People.By Sam Carr. Picador; 256 pages; £11.99. To be published in America in December; $28.99

《孤独众生》。山姆·卡尔著。皮卡多出版社；256 页；11.99 英镑。12月在美国出版；28.99 美元。

Solitude.By Netta Weinstein, Heather Hansen and Thuy-vy Nguyen. Cambridge University Press; 300 pages; $25.95 and £20

《独处》。内特·韦恩斯坦、希瑟·汉森、翠微·阮著。剑桥大学出版社；300 页；25.95 美元/ 20 英镑。

The Triumph of the Slippers.By Pascal Bruckner. Translated by Cory Stockwell. Wiley; 118 pages; $19.95. Polity; £16.99

《拖鞋的胜利》。帕斯卡尔·布鲁克纳著。科里·斯托克韦尔译。威立出版社；118 页；19.95 美元。政体出版社；16.99 英镑。

William shakespeare, that great coiner, is given credit for the word “lonely”. Coriolanus, one of his heroes, compares going into exile to a “lonely dragon” retreating to his lair. The Roman general was talking about a physical state: someone who was lonely was simply alone. Then, thanks to the Romantic poets, the word took on emotional overtones. Loneliness became a condition of the soul. For William Wordsworth, who famously “wandered lonely as a cloud”, the natural world offered a reprieve from negative feelings of isolation—a host of daffodils could provide “jocund company”.

人们认为“孤独(lonely)”一词出自造词大师威廉·莎士比亚(William Shakespeare)之手。他笔下的主人公科利奥兰纳斯(Coriolanus)去国流亡，自比“孤独的龙”回到自己的巢穴。这位罗马将军所指的是一种身体上的状态：孤独即孤身一人。随后，受到浪漫主义诗人的影响，这个词变得更加富有情感色彩。孤独成为了一种心灵状态。诗人威廉·华兹华斯(William Wordsworth)在其著名诗歌《我孤独地漫游，像一朵云》中写道，大自然缓解了孤独带来的消极情绪——一簇簇水仙花能给予“欢欣的陪伴”。

By the early 20th century loneliness was considered one of the defining afflictions of urban life.Hannah Arendt, a political theorist, lamented that a feeling that was “once a borderline experience usually suffered in certain marginal social conditions like old age, has become an everyday experience of the ever-growing masses”.

到了20世纪初，孤独被视为城市生活的一大痼疾。政治理论家汉娜·阿伦特(Hannah Arendt)痛惜道，孤独“曾是一种边缘体验，通常为社会边缘群体（如老年人群）所承受，而如今已成为越来越多人的日常体验”。

Her concerns resonate today, as loneliness is frequently identified as a serious public-health problem, an epidemic even, that besets the elderly and young alike. During thecovid-19 pandemic half of Britons reported often feeling lonely; those aged between 16 and 24 struggled the most. Smartphones, social media, online dating and working from home are all blamed for feelings of alienation. Three recent books have taken on the subject.

时至今日，她的担忧仍然引人共鸣。孤独频频被认定为严重的公共健康问题，甚至是一种流行病，困扰着老年人和年轻人。新冠疫情期间，半数英国人表示经常感到孤独；16至24岁之间的人情况最为严重。人们将疏离感归咎于智能手机、社交媒体、在线约会和居家办公。近期新出版的三本书探讨了这个话题。

In “All the Lonely People” Sam Carr, a psychologist, collects stories of individuals who feel cut off or forsaken. A teenage Afghan refugee struggles to blend in at school in Somerset. An octogenarian languishes in a retirement home. Mr Carr handles this material sensitively, weaving their experiences together with his own, in particular his role as a single parent.

在《孤独众生》一书中，心理学家山姆·卡尔(Sam Carr)收录了那些感觉与世隔绝或遭到抛弃的人们的故事。一名来自阿富汗的青少年难民努力融入英国萨默塞特郡的学校氛围；一位八旬老人在养老院苦苦煎熬。卡尔先生精心将这些故事与个人经历，尤其是其单亲爸爸的经历交织在一起。

The author evokes the pain of bereavement, heartbreak and childhood trauma and underlines the stigma attached to being withdrawn and friendless. Somehow, the book is not an unbearably bleak read, but you do wonder whether loneliness is just an unavoidable part of the human condition. The range of testimonies also suggests that loneliness is not a single feeling so much as a name for a medley of emotions and unsatisfied appetites.

作者勾起了亲友离世、心碎沮丧和童年创伤带来的痛苦，并突出描写了伴随孤独无友、沉默寡言而来的耻辱感。不知为何，这本书读来并非令人无可忍受的凄凉，但它确实会令你不禁思考：孤独是不是人生的必修课？这本书取材广泛，也让人觉得，与其说孤独是一种单一的感受，倒不如说是混杂了各种情感和未满足的欲望。

For “Solitude” Netta Weinstein and Thuy-vy Nguyen, two psychology professors, have teamed up with Heather Hansen, a science journalist, to ponder the rewards of time spent alone. They begin with an account of the mythology of solitude created by figures such as Michel de Montaigne, an essayist, andEdward Hopper, a painter. They then draw on laboratory work, interviews and surveys to illuminate how being alone really affects the human psyche.

《独处》为心理学教授内特·韦恩斯坦(Netta Weinstein)、翠微·阮(Thuy-vy Nguyen)联袂科学记者希瑟·汉森(Heather Hansen)合著完成，聚焦独处带来的好处。他们从散文家米歇尔·德·蒙田(Michel de Montaigne)和画家爱德华·霍珀(Edward Hopper)等创作的独处神话入手，利用实验室研究、访谈和调研等手段，阐明独处如何影响个人的心理。

It is common to treat loneliness and solitude as synonyms, but they are not. The authors suggest that what is negatively portrayed as one state can be positively reframed as the other. To this end they emphasise the restorative possibilities of being alone and include practical guidance. In a noisy and crowded world, they argue, people should make time to be by oneself, away from attention-grabbing stimuli.

人们常常将孤独和独处混为一谈，但二者迥异。书中提出，某种负面描述的状态也可以重新正面叙述为另一种状态。有鉴于此，他们强调了独处潜在的恢复作用，并提供了实用的指导方法。他们认为，在一个喧嚣拥挤的世界，人们应该抽出时间独处，远离吸引眼球的刺激因素。

The book’s interviewees mostly regard a lack of company as conducive to autonomy. But this depends on whether solitude is elective or enforced. If it is enforced, as it is for social outcasts and some prisoners, for instance, it is often wretched. Elective solitude, by contrast, above all in natural settings, affords space for reflection. It can open the door to “peak experiences” such as wonder, awe, harmony, even ecstasy. (In a hyper-connected digital age, many readers may not fancy their chances of ever being unplugged long enough to have such experiences.)

书中的受访者大多认为，缺乏陪伴容易让人变得独立自主。但这得看独处是自主选择还是强制使然。强制独处往往令人不适，比如社会边缘群体和一些囚犯遭遇的情况。相比之下，选择性独处，尤其是自然而然发生的独处，可以给人思考的空间，开启通往“高峰体验”的大门，如求知、敬畏、和谐，甚至狂喜。（在高度互联的数字时代，许多读者可能都不相信自己能够长时间远离电子设备来获得这般体验）。

注：

1.高峰体验（peak experience）是马斯洛在他的需要层次理论中创造的一个名词，是指人们在追求自我实现的过程中，基本需要获得满足后，达到自我实现时所感受到的短暂的、豁达的、极乐的体验，是一种趋于顶峰、超越时空、超越自我的满足与完美体验。（来源：百度百科-高峰体验）

2. fancy someone's chances：to think that someone is likely to succeed （Cambridge dictionary）

Pascal Bruckner sees a world shrinking from sociability in favour of snug seclusion. “The Triumph of the Slippers” is grounded not in research but in the French tradition of witty social criticism. Mr Bruckner, a philosopher and polemicist, dubs the present period “a Great Withdrawal”. As he sees it, the openness of the late 20th century is over, and “the closing of minds and spaces is well under way.” People may like living in “authorised sloppiness”, yet it is hard to imagine heroes and trailblazers wearing dressing gowns: “While it’s nice to be comfortable, you can’t build a civilisation on softness.” With a mixture of playfulness and grandiosity, he describes a society where most tasks can be completed without leaving the house. His book overflows with soundbites—the public sphere, for example, is dominated by “orgies of pettiness”—and he peppers his short chapters with references toNietzsche, Plato and Rousseau.

在帕斯卡尔·布鲁克纳(Pascal Bruckner)眼里，人们正在逃避社交，享受与世隔绝的生活。《拖鞋的胜利》并不立足于研究，而是扎根于法国诙谐的社会批判传统。布鲁克纳是一位哲学家和善辩者，他称当今时代为“大退缩”。在他看来，20世纪末的开放已经结束，而“思想和空间正在逐渐封闭”。人们可能喜欢“在允许范围内不修边幅地”生活，但很难想象英雄和先驱会身穿晨袍：“虽然追求舒适没什么不好，但文明无法建立在软弱之上。”他将嬉笑怒骂与宏大叙事相结合，描述了一个足不出户就能完成大部分任务的社会。书中妙语不断，例如“无尽的鸡毛蒜皮”正在占领公共领域，简短的章节中多次提到了尼采、柏拉图和卢梭。

Though his argument spins off in many directions, Mr Bruckner’s main theme is the need for people to relearn the art of intimacy. “Interactive solitude”, enabled by technology, is no substitute for “the great theatre of the world”. Mr Bruckner supplies a checklist for warding off enduring, corrosive feelings of loneliness: “Have we loved enough, given enough, lavished enough, embraced enough?” If these books are right, many readers will find themselves answering “No.”

虽然布鲁克纳的论证衍生方向众多，但他的主旨是人们需要重新学习亲密的艺术。技术带来的“交互式孤独”无法替代“世界这个大舞台”。布鲁克纳提供了一份清单，可以抵御持久的、侵蚀内心的孤独感：“我们爱得够不够，付出得够不够，给予得够不够，挥霍得够不够？拥抱得够不够？”如果这些书的观点正确，许多读者会发现自己的回答是“不够”。

翻译组：

Jack Jan，实践出真知

Dodo，愿识乾坤大、犹怜草木青的同传Dodo

Trista，女，虽然我是无业游民，但是我并没有骄傲

校对组：

UU，保持低调

Xiao，富春江小翻译

小脑袋，努力建设自我支持系统的小翻译

观点|评论|思考

本期感想

雪迪，开眼看世界

读完文章，i人不得不展开讲讲独处的好处。

所处的空间里没有别人，就不用在乎别人的感受。光线、音量、空间、事件安排、表情等等几乎所有事情都由自己说了算。多年群体生活养成的“好习惯”终于可以抛下，电子设备可以外放，光线强时也可以拉开窗帘。

除了这些可见的事，独处时精神上的放松状态也帮人恢复精力，维持精神健康。因为不用时时刻刻高度警戒地感受别人的需求和情绪，大脑里负责社交的那部分CPU占用率从百分之六七十降到5%以下。省下来的精力也可以专注自己想做的事情，并且不会被打扰。可以学习。可以睡觉。可以培养爱好。也可以胡思乱想（这个活动给生活增添趣味，也让人成为特别的自己，因为你脑子里的东西跟别的学生或者上班族不一样）。

但独处的门槛很高，独处的空间往往不便宜；留给人独处的时间通常也不会很长。独处也会面临无人照料和精神孤独等问题。所以如果有独处的机会，请尽情享受。

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