The history of human emotions | Tiffany Watt Smith

翻译人员: Ying Yu 校对人员: Yolanda Zhang

I would like to begin with a little experiment.

我想以一个小实验来开始今天的演讲

In a moment, I'm going to ask if you would close your eyes

稍后之后我会请你们闭上眼睛

and see if you can work out

然后看看是否能够辨别

what emotions you're feeling right now.

你们当下所感受到的情绪

我并不是要 让你们来分辨什么人或物

Now, you're not going to tell anyone or anything.

The idea is to see how easy or perhaps hard you find it

这个实验的目的 是让大家感受一下

to pinpoint exactly what you're feeling.

准确辨别情绪的难易程度

And I thought I'd give you 10 seconds to do this.

我会给你们十秒钟

OK?

可以吧

Right, let's start.

好的 我们现在开始

OK, that's it, time's up.

好的 结束了 时间到

How did it go?

怎么样

You were probably feeling a little bit under pressure,

你可能感觉到有一点压力

maybe suspicious of the person next to you.

也许在猜疑旁边的人

Did they definitely have their eyes closed?

他们真的都闭上双眼了吗

Perhaps you felt some strange, distant worry

也许你会有些异样的感觉

about that email you sent this morning

隐隐担心今早发出的电子邮件

或者为你今晚的计划感到兴奋

or excitement about something you've got planned for this evening.

Maybe you felt that exhilaration that comes when we get together

也许你为我们一群人齐聚一堂

in big groups of people like this;

而觉得欣喜不已

the Welsh called it "hwyl,"

威尔士人把这叫做 hwyl（激情）

from the word for boat sails.

来源于单词 船帆

Or maybe you felt all of these things.

又或者你体会到了上述的所有情绪

There are some emotions which wash the world in a single color,

有的情绪可以 占据你的整个内心世界

like the terror felt as a car skids.

比如汽车打滑时的恐惧

But more often, our emotions crowd and jostle together

但通常情况下 我们的各种情绪 会互相交织在一起

until it is actually quite hard to tell them apart.

很难将它们严格区分开

Some slide past so quickly you'd hardly even notice them,

有的情绪来得太快 你甚至都注意不到

like the nostalgia that will make you reach out

比如思乡情绪 它让你在超市里

to grab a familiar brand in the supermarket.

情不自禁地伸手去抓 自己熟悉的那个品牌

And then there are others that we hurry away from,

还有其他的情绪 我们忙不迭地想要摆脱它

fearing that they'll burst on us,

害怕它们会在我们身上爆发

like the jealousy that causes you to search a loved one's pockets.

比如嫉妒 诱使你去搜爱人的包

And of course, there are some emotions which are so peculiar,

当然 还有一些情绪太特别了

you might not even know what to call them.

你可能甚至都不知道它们叫什么

Perhaps sitting there, you had a little tingle of a desire

也许此刻坐在这儿 你心里有一丝奇怪的冲动

for an emotion one eminent French sociologist called "ilinx,"

一个法国著名的社会学家 称这种情绪为 ilinx

the delirium that comes with minor acts of chaos.

是一种精神错乱 同时伴随许多较小的混乱的活动

For example, if you stood up right now and emptied the contents of your bag

例如 你现在站起来 然后把你包里的东西清空

铺得满地都是

all over the floor.

Perhaps you experienced one of those odd, untranslatable emotions

也许你曾经经历过一种奇怪的 无法言表的情绪

for which there's no obvious English equivalent.

你可能都找不到与之对应的英语词汇

You might have felt the feeling the Dutch called "gezelligheid,"

你可能经历过一种 荷兰人称之为 gezelligheid 的情绪

being cozy and warm inside with friends when it's cold and damp outside.

感觉就像外面又冷又湿的时候 你和朋友们舒服而温暖地待在家里

Maybe if you were really lucky,

如果你真的很幸运 也许感受到过

you felt this:

这种情绪

"basorexia,"

basorexia

a sudden urge to kiss someone.

一种想要亲吻某人的冲动

(Laughter)

（笑声）

We live in an age

我们生活在这样一个时代

when knowledge of emotions is an extremely important commodity,

关于情绪的知识 成为了非常重要的日用品

where emotions are used to explain many things,

而情绪也被用来解释许多事情

exploited by our politicians,

被政客们利用

manipulated by algorithms.

用公式来计算

Emotional intelligence, which is the skill of being able to recognize and name

情商 这种可以识别和命名

your own emotions and those of other people,

自己或他人的情绪的技能

is considered so important, that this is taught in our schools and businesses

被认为如此重要 甚至会 在学校和工作中被作为课程讲授

and encouraged by our health services.

同时也是我们的健康服务所推崇的

But despite all of this,

但尽管如此

I sometimes wonder

有时我还是在想

我们思考情绪的方式 是否太过贫乏

if the way we think about emotions is becoming impoverished.

Sometimes, we're not even that clear what an emotion even is.

有时我们其实并不知道 某种情绪是什么

You've probably heard the theory

你们可能都听过这个理论

that our entire emotional lives can be boiled down

我们的整个情绪生活 可以被划分为

一些基本的情绪

to a handful of basic emotions.

This idea is actually about 2,000 years old,

这个理论其实已经存在了两千多年了

but in our own time,

但在我们的时代里

一些研究进化的心理学家 提出过这六种情绪

some evolutionary psychologists have suggested that these six emotions --

happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise --

快乐 悲伤 恐惧 恶心 愤怒和惊喜

are expressed by everyone across the globe in exactly the same way,

全世界上每个人的表达方式都一样

and therefore represent the building blocks

因而它们代表了我们整个情绪生活的

of our entire emotional lives.

基本组成部分

然而如果你这样看待情绪的话

Well, if you look at an emotion like this,

它看起来就是一个简单的反射

then it looks like a simple reflex:

it's triggered by an external predicament,

由外界某种状态触发

it's hardwired,

是固定的

it's there to protect us from harm.

它保护我们免受伤害

所以当你看到熊的时候 你的心率加快

So you see a bear, your heart rate quickens,

your pupils dilate, you feel frightened, you run very, very fast.

你的瞳孔增大 感到害怕 你会跑得非常非常快

The problem with this picture is,

但这种观点的问题在于

it doesn't entirely capture what an emotion is.

它并不能完全概括情绪是什么

Of course, the physiology is extremely important,

当然 心理学非常重要

but it's not the only reason why we feel the way we do

但它并不是我们在任何时候 感受到当下感觉的

at any given moment.

唯一原因

What if I was to tell you that in the 12th century,

如果我告诉你 在十二世纪

some troubadours didn't see yawning

一些吟游诗人并不认为 打哈欠

as caused by tiredness or boredom like we do today,

是由于累了或者无聊了 像我们今天认为的一样

but thought it a symbol of the deepest love?

而是以为哈欠是最深的爱的象征

Or that in that same period, brave men -- knights --

或者在同一时代 勇敢的人们 骑士们

commonly fainted out of dismay?

会因为 沮丧 而晕倒

What if I was to tell you

如果我告诉你

that some early Christians who lived in the desert

某些早期的住在沙漠里的基督教徒

believed that flying demons who mainly came out at lunchtime

坚信会飞的恶魔 通常会在午餐时候出没

could infect them with an emotion they called "accidie,"

传染给他们一种叫做 倦怠 的情绪

a kind of lethargy that was sometimes so intense

一种昏睡的症状 有时这种症状很严重

it could even kill them?

甚至可能导致他们的死亡

Or that boredom, as we know and love it today,

亦或者 被他们叫做 无所事事 的情绪 现在我们都知道并且很喜欢

was first really only felt by the Victorians,

一开始只有维多利亚时代的人

in response to new ideas about leisure time and self-improvement?

对休闲时光或者自我提升 有新的想法时才能感觉到

What if we were to think again

如果我们再想一想

这些奇怪的无法言表的情绪

about those odd, untranslatable words for emotions

and wonder whether some cultures might feel an emotion more intensely

以及是否有的文化可能对 某种情绪有更强烈的感觉

just because they've bothered to name and talk about it,

只是因为他们命名和谈论它

like the Russian "toska,"

像俄语中的 toska

a feeling of maddening dissatisfaction

一种令人发狂的不满

said to blow in from the great plains.

据说是从大平原流传过来的

The most recent developments in cognitive science show

最近的认知科学研究结果表明

that emotions are not simple reflexes,

情绪并不是简单的反射

but immensely complex, elastic systems

而是极度复杂的 灵活多变的系统

that respond both to the biologies that we've inherited

这系统不仅响应我们 所沿袭的生物系统

and to the cultures that we live in now.

也对我们当下生活的 文化环境有反应

They are cognitive phenomena.

它们是认知现象

They're shaped not just by our bodies, but by our thoughts,

它们不仅被我们的身体所塑造 也被我们的想法

our concepts, our language.

我们的理念和语言所塑造

The neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett has become very interested

神经科学家巴雷特·费尔德曼·丽莎

对这种动态的语言与情绪之间的 关系非常有兴趣

in this dynamic relationship between words and emotions.

She argues that when we learn a new word for an emotion,

她提出 当我们学习关于 一种情绪的一个新单词

new feelings are sure to follow.

就会产生新的感觉

As a historian, I've long suspected that as language changes,

作为一个史学研究者 我一直猜想 当语言改变时

our emotions do, too.

我们的情绪是否也会随之而变

When we look to the past, it's easy to see that emotions have changed,

当我们回望过去 很容易就发现 情绪会改变

sometimes very dramatically,

有时这种改变非常剧烈

in response to new cultural expectations and religious beliefs,

这种改变是对 新文化的期望和宗教的信仰

new ideas about gender, ethnicity and age,

关于性别 种族和 年龄的新观念的响应

even in response to new political and economic ideologies.

甚至是对新的政治和 经济意识形态的响应

There is a historicity to emotions

情绪具有史学性

that we are only recently starting to understand.

而我们直到最近 才开始理解这种特性

So I agree absolutely that it does us good to learn new words for emotions,

所以我绝对同意 学习关于情绪的 新词语对我们有益

but I think we need to go further.

但我认为我们还要想得更远

I think to be truly emotionally intelligent,

想要真的具备高情商

we need to understand where those words have come from,

我们还需要明白这些词语从何而来

and what ideas about how we ought to live and behave

以及我们应该如何 生活和行为的理念

they are smuggling along with them.

这些东西与情绪共存

Let me tell you a story.

我来给你们讲个故事吧

It begins in a garret in the late 17th century,

这个故事发生在17世纪末

in the Swiss university town of Basel.

瑞士巴塞尔大学镇的一个阁楼里

Inside, there's a dedicated student living some 60 miles away from home.

在阁楼里住着一个勤奋的学生 他的家离这里60多英里

He stops turning up to his lectures,

他有天突然不去上课了

and his friends come to visit and they find him dejected and feverish,

他的朋友来看他 发现他精神沮丧 发烧

having heart palpitations,

还伴有心悸

strange sores breaking out on his body.

身上长了奇怪的疮

Doctors are called,

有人叫了医生

and they think it's so serious that prayers are said for him

大家以为他很严重 还在当地教堂

帮他做了祷告

in the local church.

当大家正在准备把这个 年轻人送回家

And it's only when they're preparing to return this young man home

so that he can die,

让他入土为安时

that they realize what's going on,

他们才发现发生了什么

because once they lift him onto the stretcher,

因为当他们把他抬起来 放到担架上时

他的呼吸顺畅多了

his breathing becomes less labored.

And by the time he's got to the gates of his hometown,

而当他快到家门口时

he's almost entirely recovered.

他几乎痊愈了

And that's when they realize

这时候大家意识到

that he's been suffering from a very powerful form of homesickness.

他一直以来得的是 非常强烈的思乡病

It's so powerful, that it might have killed him.

这种思乡情绪太强烈 差点害死了他

Well, in 1688, a young doctor, Johannes Hofer,

在1688年 一个年轻的医生 约翰内斯·霍弗

heard of this case and others like it

听说了这个病例 以及其他的类似病例

and christened the illness "nostalgia."

将这种病命名为 nostalgia （思乡病）

The diagnosis quickly caught on in medical circles around Europe.

这种诊断很快在欧洲的 医疗圈中传播开来

The English actually thought they were probably immune

事实上英国人以为 自己对这种疾病免疫

because of all the travel they did in the empire and so on.

因为他们总在帝国之中 不停的到处旅行

But soon there were cases cropping up in Britain, too.

但后来也在英国发现了类似的病例

The last person to die from nostalgia

死于思乡病的最后一个人

was an American soldier fighting during the First World War in France.

是在一战中 在法国战斗的美国士兵

How is it possible that you could die from nostalgia

距今还不到100年前的人们

less than a hundred years ago?

怎么会死于思乡病呢

But today, not only does the word mean something different --

但如今 不仅这个词本身 代表了其他的意思

a sickening for a lost time rather than a lost place --

更多的是对逝去时光 而不是地点的缅怀

but homesickness itself is seen as less serious,

而且思乡病本身也没有那么严重

sort of downgraded from something you could die from

好像从一种可能致死的情绪

to something you're mainly worried your kid might be suffering from

降低为你可能会担心的 比如你的孩子在朋友家过夜时

想家的小情绪

at a sleepover.

This change seems to have happened in the early 20th century.

这种变化好像发生在20世纪的早期

But why?

但为什么会发生呢

Was it the invention of telephones or the expansion of the railways?

是由于电话的发明 还是火车的普及

Was it perhaps the coming of modernity,

亦或是现代化的到来

with its celebration of restlessness and travel and progress

对无休止的旅行和发展的大力推崇

that made sickening for the familiar

让我们对自己所熟悉东西的

seem rather unambitious?

怀旧情绪看起来没那么热切了

You and I inherit that massive transformation in values,

我们所有人都继承了 这种极大的价值观转变

and it's one reason why we might not feel homesickness today

这也可能是我们今天 没有像过去那样

as acutely as we used to.

想家的原因之一

It's important to understand

重点是要去理解

that these large historical changes influence our emotions

历史巨变会对我们的情绪产生影响

partly because they affect how we feel about how we feel.

部分是因为它们会影响 我们如何感知自己的感觉

Today, we celebrate happiness.

今天我们赞美快乐

Happiness is supposed to make us better workers

快乐可以使我们成为更好的职工

and parents and partners;

更好的父母和伴侣

it's supposed to make us live longer.

它还可能让我们活得更久

In the 16th century,

然而在16世纪

sadness was thought to do most of those things.

悲伤这种情绪却被认为是 具有以上大多数功能的情绪

It's even possible to read self-help books from that period

那个时候甚至还有一些 自助的书籍可以

激发读者的悲伤情绪

which try to encourage sadness in readers

by giving them lists of reasons to be disappointed.

通过给他们罗列一系列 应该感到失望的原因

(Laughter)

（笑声）

These self-help authors thought you could cultivate sadness as a skill,

这些自助书籍的作者认为 你可以将悲伤培养为一种技能

since being expert in it would make you more resilient

因为当你成为这方面的专家 在坏事临头的时候

when something bad did happen to you, as invariably it would.

你会更容易挺过来 谁都不会一直一帆风顺

I think we could learn from this today.

我觉得我们可以从这其中 学到一些东西

Feel sad today, and you might feel impatient, even a little ashamed.

今天你如果觉得悲伤 你可能会没有耐心 甚至有点羞愧

Feel sad in the 16th century, and you might feel a little bit smug.

在16世纪觉得悲伤 你则可能会自命不凡

Of course, our emotions don't just change across time,

当然 我们的情绪不仅随时间变化

they also change from place to place.

也随着地点不同而不同

The Baining people of Papua New Guinea speak of "awumbuk,"

新几内亚岛的拜宁人 会说 awumbuk

a feeling of lethargy that descends when a houseguest finally leaves.

一种代表你家里的客人终于离开后 会逐渐减弱的没精打采的情绪

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Now, you or I might feel relief,

这种情况对我们大家来说也许 只会觉得松了口气

but in Baining culture,

但在拜宁人的文化里

即将出发的客人 可能会留下一些沉重的情绪

departing guests are thought to shed a sort of heaviness

so they can travel more easily,

这样他们在路上才能走得更轻松

and this heaviness infects the air and causes this awumbuk.

这种沉重会影响周遭的空气 从而造成这种 awumbuk

And so what they do is leave a bowl of water out overnight

所以他们会在前一天晚上 放一碗水在门口

来吸收这种空气

to absorb this air,

and then very early the next morning, they wake up and have a ceremony

然后第二天一大早 他们起床 举行一个仪式

再将这碗水扔掉

and throw the water away.

Now, here's a good example

还有一个很好的例子

of spiritual practices and geographical realities combining

表明精神活动和地理现实相结合

to bring a distinct emotion into life

会产生生活中一种特别的情绪

and make it disappear again.

然后再让其消失

One of my favorite emotions is a Japanese word, "amae."

这是我最喜欢的情绪之一 一个日本词语 amae

Amae is a very common word in Japan,

amae这个词在日本很常见

but it is actually quite hard to translate.

但它其实非常难翻译

It means something like the pleasure that you get

它代表了某种类似于当你可以

when you're able to temporarily hand over responsibility for your life

暂时将你生活的责任交付于

to someone else.

其他人时的欣喜

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Now, anthropologists suggest

人类学家们推测

that one reason why this word might have been named and celebrated

这个词语在日本被命名和推崇的

in Japan

可能原因之一

is because of that country's traditionally collectivist culture,

是因为这个国家的集体主义文化

whereas the feeling of dependency

而独立的感觉

may be more fraught amongst English speakers,

则可能在那些讲英语的 人群中更常见

who have learned to value self-sufficiency and individualism.

这些人早已学会了去重视 自我满足和个人主义

This might be a little simplistic,

这可能有点过于简化了

but it is tantalizing.

但这的确引人深思

What might our emotional languages tell us not just about what we feel,

我们的情绪语言告诉我们的 不仅仅是我们的感觉

but about what we value most?

还有我们最重视的是什么

Most people who tell us to pay attention to our well-being

许多告诉我们要关注个人健康的人

谈论着给我们的情绪命名的重要性

talk of the importance of naming our emotions.

But these names aren't neutral labels.

但这些名字并不只是单纯的标签

They are freighted with our culture's values and expectations,

它们承载着我们文化中的 价值观和期望

and they transmit ideas about who we think we are.

也传递着我们对自己的看法

Learning new and unusual words for emotions will help attune us

学习新的 不常见的这些 情绪词汇可以帮助我们

调节我们的内在生活 使其更加平顺

to the more finely grained aspects of our inner lives.

But more than this, I think these words are worth caring about,

但不止如此 我认为这些词语值得关注

because they remind us how powerful the connection is

是因为它们提醒着我们 我们的想法

between what we think

与我们的感觉之间

and how we end up feeling.

有多么强烈的联系

True emotional intelligence requires that we understand

真正的高情商需要我们理解

社会 政治和文化的力量

the social, the political, the cultural forces

that have shaped what we've come to believe about our emotions

塑造了我们如今 如何看待自己的情绪

and understand how happiness or hatred or love or anger

理解快乐 憎恨 喜爱或者愤怒

might still be changing now.

至今可能仍然处于变化之中

Because if we want to measure our emotions

因为如果我们想衡量自己的情绪

and teach them in our schools

并在学校中围绕其授课

and listen as our politicians tell us how important they are,

甚至听我们的政客告诉我们 它们如何重要

then it is a good idea that we understand

那么我们理解自己

where the assumptions we have about them

关于这些情绪的设想

have come from,

由何而来

and whether they still truly speak to us now.

以及它们对我们来说 是否仍然属实 就十分重要

I want to end with an emotion I often feel

我想以作为一个历史学家

when I'm working as a historian.

常常感觉到的一种情绪作为结尾

It's a French word, "dépaysement."

它是一个法语词 dépaysement

It evokes the giddy disorientation that you feel in an unfamiliar place.

它会引发一种你在不熟悉的地方 所感觉到的晕眩和迷惑感

One of my favorite parts of being a historian

作为历史学家我最喜欢的一点是

is when something I've completely taken for granted,

有时当我觉得某事理所当然

some very familiar part of my life,

某些我生活中非常熟悉的事情

is suddenly made strange again.

突然又变得奇怪起来

Dépaysement is unsettling,

dépaysement 意思是不确定

but it's exciting, too.

但也令人兴奋

And I hope you might be having just a little glimpse of it right now.

我希望你们现在 对此已经稍微有所体会了

Thank you.

谢谢

(Applause)

（掌声）