Men's Search for Meaning by Victor E. Frankl 英文版 First Published in Austria in 1946, under the tiltle Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager. This translation first published by Beacon Press in 1959. First washington square Press printing february 1985. ISBN 0-671-66736-X 中文版 @iKindle 每当看到狱友吸烟时,我们就知道他已经失去了活下去的勇气。勇气一旦失去,几乎不可能再挽回。 正是由于这...(2回应)
2012-05-26 11:4147人喜欢
Men's Search for Meaning
by Victor E. Frankl
英文版 First Published in Austria in 1946, under the tiltle Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager. This translation first published by Beacon Press in 1959. First washington square Press printing february 1985. ISBN 0-671-66736-X
中文版 @iKindle
每当看到狱友吸烟时,我们就知道他已经失去了活下去的勇气。勇气一旦失去,几乎不可能再挽回。
正是由于这种冷漠外壳的包裹,囚徒们才能真正保护自己。
近乎原始的生活,以及仅仅为了自保就必须使出浑身解数的生存环境,使得绝大多数的俘虏完全漠视了于自保无益的其他事物。这也便是我们普遍缺乏感情的原因所在。关于这一点,我在由奥斯维辛被调往达荷城的附近一处集中营时,感受特别深刻。当时,我们(约有两千名俘虏)所搭乘的火车经过维也纳。子夜时分,火车路过维也纳的一个小站,而且就要经过我出生的那条街,以及我住了好多年--老实说,一直住到我被捕为止--的房子。
当时,我就清楚地感觉到自己像是从另一个世界回来的幽灵;儿时的街道、广场及住屋,在我眼中看来,恰似一座鬼城。
爱,是人类一切渴望的终极。我又体悟到人间一切诗歌、思想、信念所揭露的一大奥秘:"人类的救赎,是经由爱而成于爱。"我更领会到:一个孑然一身.别无余物的人只要沉醉在想念心上人的思维里,仍可享受到无上的喜悦--即使只是倏忽的一瞬间。人在陷身绝境、无计可施时,唯一能做的,也许就只是以正当的方式(即光荣的方式)忍受痛苦了。当其时,他可以借着凝视爱侣留在他心版上的影像,来度过凄苦的难关。生平首遭,我总算了解到下列这句话的真义:“天使睇视那无限的荣耀,竟至于浑然忘我。”
A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life i saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth - that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way - an honorable way - in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, "The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory"
我只晓得一件事(此事我而今已深为熟稔):爱,远超乎我所爱的人的肉身以外。爱最深刻的含义,就蕴藏在她的精神层次、她的“内在我”当中。不论她是否近在眼前,不论她是否尚在人间,其实都已经无关紧要。
A thought crossed my mind: I didn't even know if she were still alive. I knew only one thing - which I have learned well by now: Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self. Whether or not he is actually present, whether or not he is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance.
要你不自羁绊,就可一任想像力驰骋于过往,咀嚼一些无关宏旨、微不足道的前尘往事。你会以怀旧的心情,把这些前尘往事一一加以美化,使其显得遥不可及,也使得你满心渴望再度身临其中。我自己就常在想像中搭上公共汽车,打开家门,接听电话且捻亮电灯。这些琐事和记忆每每令我低徊不已,乃至潸然泪下。
When given free rein, his imagination played with past events, often not important ones, but minor happenings and trifling things. His nostalgic memory glorified them and they assumed a strange character. Their world and their existence seemed very distant and the spirit reached out for them longingly: In my mind I took bus rides, unlocked the front door of my apartment, answered my telephone, switched on the electric lights. Our thoughts often centered on such details, and these memories could move one to tears.
美感的影响下,有时连自身的可怕遭遇都会忘得一干二净。从奥斯维辛转往巴伐利亚一集中营的途中,我们就曾透过车窗上的窥孔,凝视萨尔兹堡附近山峦沐浴在落日余晖中的美景。当时,如果有人看到我们的脸容,一定不会相信我们是一批已放弃了一切生命和获释希望的俘虏。尽管(也许正因为)放弃了一切希望,我们仍(才)神往于睽隔已久的大自然美景,并为之心醉情痴。
As the inner life of the prisoner tended to become more intense, he also experienced the beauty of art and nature as never before. Under their influence he sometimes even forgot his own frightful circumstances. If someone had seen our faces on the journey from Auschwitz to Bavarian camp as we beheld the mountains of Salzburg with their summits flowing in the sunset, through the little barred windows of the prison carriage, he would never have believed that those were the faces of men who had given up all hope of life and liberty. Despite that factor - or maybe because of it - we were carried away b nature's beauty, which we had missed for so long.
大伙儿屏息良久,一个俘虏才慨然一叹:"这世界怎会这么美啊!"
In camp, too, a man might draw the attention of comrade working next to him to a nice view of setting sun shining through the tall trees of the Bavarian woods (as in the famous water color by Durer), the same woods in which we had built an enormous, hidden munitions plant. One evening, when we were already resting on the floor of our hut, dead tired, soup bowls in hand, a fellow prisoner rushed in and asked us to run out to the assembly grounds and see the wonderful sunset. Standing outside we saw sinister clouds growing in the west and the whole sky alive with clouds of ever-changeing shapes and colors, from steel blue to blood red. the desolate grey mud huts provided a sharp contrast, while the puddles on the muddy ground reflected the growing sky. Then, after minutes of moving silence, one prisoner said to another, "How beautiful the world could be!"
我愈来愈感觉她就近在眼前,同我在一起;我甚至觉得自己碰得到她,还可以伸手握住她的手。这个感觉非常强烈。恰在那时,一只鸟悄然无声地飞下来,而且就栖息在我前面--在我刚刚挖出来的土堆上--还目不转睛地望着我。
More and more I felt that she was present, that she was with me; I had the feeling that I was able to touch her, able to stretch out my hand and grasp hers. The feeling was very strong: she was there. Then, at the very moment, a bird flew down silently and perched just in front of me, on the heap of soil which I had dug up from the ditch, and looked steadily at me.
个人内在价值的意识,原应建基于较高尚、较属精神层次的事物上,因此不可能为集中营生活所动摇。然而不要说俘虏,即便是享有自由之身的芸芸众生之中,有多少人真正拥有这样一份意识?)一般俘虏不必特别去想,就都感到自己的价值已全然贬低。这种感觉,在看到营中简单的社会结构所显示出来的强烈对比时,尤其明显。较"优秀"的俘虏,诸如酷霸、伙夫、仓库管理员,营警等等,可以说完全不像大多数俘虏那样自感吃瘪,反而自以为升格了!有的人甚至还自认为威风八面哩!至于内心酸溜溜的大多数对这一小撮吃香分子的观感,则有几种不同的表达方式,而开玩笑则是其中一种。譬如,我就曾听过一名俘虏对另一名俘虏谈起某酷霸:"喝!早在他还只是某大银行总经理时,我就认识他了。如今他在这里升得这么快,岂不是时来运转了吗?"
Besides these physical causes, there were mental ones, in the form of certain complexes. The majority of prisoners suffered from a kind of inferiority complex. We all had once been or had fancied ourselves to be "somebody". Now we were treated like complete nonentities. (The consciousness of one's inner value is anchored in higher, more spiritual things, and cannot be shaken by camp life. But how many free men, let alone prisoners, posses it?) Without consciously thinking about it, the average prisoner felt himself utterly degraded. This became obvious when one observed the contrasts offered by the singular sociological structure of the camp. The more "prominent" prisoners, the Capos, the cooks, the store-keepers and the camp policemen, did not, as a rule, feel degraded at all, like the majority of prisoners, but on the contrary - promoted! Some even developed miniature delusions of grandeur. The mental reaction of the envious and grumbling majority toward this favored minority found expression in several ways, sometimes in jokes. I heard one prisoner talk to another about a Capo, saying, "Imagine! I knew that man when he was only president of a large bank. Isn't it fortunate that he has risen so far in the world?"
吆喝是有必要的,因为发高烧的病人,已经冷漠到除非挨骂否则仍无动于衷的地步。有时候,连叫骂也不管用;这时,我就得使出浑身解数忍住一腔的怒火,才不致于出手打人。毕竟,在面临别人的无动于衷以及因而造成的险恶情势(即渐渐逼近的清洁检查)之时,任何人都特别容易变得暴躁起来。
Apathy was particularly increased among the feverish patients, so that they did not react at all unless they were shouted at. Even this failed at times, and then it took tremendous self-control not to strike them. For one's own irritability took on enormous proportions in the face of the othe's apathy and especially in the face of the danger ( i.e., the approaching inspection) which was caused by it.
冷漠的态度是可以克服的,躁怒的情绪也可以控制。人"有能力"保留他的精神自由及心智的独立,即便是身心皆处于恐怖如斯的压力下,亦无不同。
The experiences of camp life show that man does have a choice of action. There were enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress.
人所拥有的任何东西,都可以被剥夺,惟独人性最后的自由--也就是在任何境遇中选择一已态度和生活方式的自由--不能被剥夺。
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
有待抉择的事情,随时随地都会有的,每个日子,无时无刻不提供你抉择的机会。而你的抉择,恰恰决定了你究竟会不会屈从于强权,任其剥夺你的真我及内在的自由,也恰恰决定了你是否将因自愿放弃自由与尊严,而沦为境遇的玩物及槁木死灰般的典型俘虏。
And there were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom; which determined whether or not you would become the plaything of circumstance, renouncing freedom and dignity to become molded into the form of the typical inmate.
从这个角度看来,营中人的心理反应,显然比起某种生理及社会环境下的单纯反应要来得意味深长。即使像睡眠不足、缺乏食物、和繁重的精神压力等这些情境可能使人联想到营中人非以某种方式来反应不可,但若分析到最后,我们却可以发现一个俘虏之所以变成怎样的人,实在是他内心抉择的结果,而非纯系环境因素使然。因此,任何人就是处在这种情境下,根本上都可以凭他个人的意志和精神,来决定他要成为什么样子。即使是置身于集中营,他仍可以保有他的人性尊严。陀斯妥耶夫斯基曾说过:"我只害怕一件事;我怕我配不上自已所受的痛苦。"这句话,在我结识营中那些烈士以后,时常萦绕在我心头。他们的痛苦和死亡,在在都证明了一个事实:人最后的内在自由,绝不可以失丧。可以说,他们配得上他们所受的苦,他们承受痛苦的方式.是一项实实在在的内在成就。正是这种不可剥夺的精神自由,使得生命充满意义并有其目的。
Seen from this point of view, the mental reactions of the inmates of a concentration camp must seem more to us than the mere expression of certain physical and sociological conditions. Even though conditions such as lack of sleep, insufficient food and various mental stresses may suggest that the inmates were bound to react in certain ways, in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone. Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him - mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp. Dostoevski said once, "There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings." These words frequently came to my mind after I became acquainted with those martyrs whose behavior in camp, whose suffering and death, bore witness to the fact that the last inner freedom cannot be lost. It can be said that they were worthy of their sufferings; the way they bore their suffering was a genuine inner achievement. It is this spiritual freedom - which cannot be taken away - that makes life meaningful and purposeful.
忙碌而积极的生活,其目的在于使人有机会了解创造性工作的价值;悠闲而退隐的生活,则使人有机会体验美、艺术,或大自然,并引为一种成就。至于既乏创意、又不悠闲的生活,也有其目的:它使人有机会提升其人格情操,并在备受外力拘限的情境下选择其生活态度。集中营俘虏虽与悠闲的生活和创意的生活无缘,但人世间有意义的,并不只是创意和悠闲而已。如果人生真有意义,痛苦自应有其意义。痛苦正如命运和死亡一样,是生命中无可抹煞的一部分。没有痛苦和死亡,人的生命就无法完整。
An active life serves the purpose of giving man the opportunity to realize values in creative work, while a passive life of enjoyment affords him the opportunity to obtain fulfillment in experiencing beauty, art, or nature. But there is also purpose in that life which is almost barren of both creation and enjoyment and which admits of but one possibility of high moral behavior: namely, in man's attitude to his existence, an existence restricted by external forces. A creative life and a life of enjoyment are banned to him. But not only creativeness and enjoyment are meaningful. If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a
meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.
一个人若能接受命运及其所附加的一切痛苦,并且肩负起自己的十字架,则即使处在最恶劣的环境中,照样有充分的机会去加深他生命的意义,使生命保有坚忍、尊贵、与无私的特质。否则,在力图自保的残酷斗争中,他很可能因为忘却自己的人性尊严,以致变得与禽兽无异;险恶的处境,提供他获致精神价值的机会;这机会,他可以掌握,也可以放弃,但他的取舍,却能够决定他究竟配得上或配不上他所受的痛苦。
The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity - even under the most difficult circumstances - to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.
读者千万不要以为这些思虑都太超凡绝俗,太与现实生活脱节。的确,有能力达到这样崇高精神境界的人,实在寥寥无几。集中营众多俘虏当中,也只有少数几个人,能够守住完全的内在自由,且获得痛苦所惠予的那些价值。然而,即使只有一个实例,就足以证明人的内在力量,可使人超越于外在的命运。这种人,并非只有集中营里才有。在世界各地,人处处都面对着命运的挑战,面对着经由痛苦而获大成就的机会。
Do not think that these considerations are unworldly and too far removed from real life. It is true that only a few people are capable of reaching such high moral standards. Of the prisoners only a few kept their full inner liberty and obtained those values which their suffering afforded, but even one such example is sufficient proof that man's inner strength may raise him above his outward fate. Such men are not only in concentration camps. Everywhere man is confronted with fate, with the chance of achieving something through his own suffering.
且以病人--尤其是罹患绝症者--的命运为例。有次,我读到一封由某个半身不遂的年轻人写给他朋友的信。信上说,他才刚获悉自己将不久于人世,即使动手术也终归徒劳。他又说,他看过一部影片,里头有个人以勇敢和尊贵的方式等候死亡。当时,他觉得能那样迎接死亡,实在是一大成就。如今一他写道--命运也给了他一个类似的机会。
Take the fate of the sick - especially those who are incurable. I once read a letter written by a young invalid, in which he told a friend that he had just found out he would not live for long, that even an operation would be of no help. He wrote further that he remembered a film he had seen in which a man was portrayed who waited for death in a courageous and dignified way. The boy had thought it a great accomplishment to meet death so well. Now - he wrote - fate was offering him a similar chance.
这部影片,名叫《复活》,是由托尔斯泰名著改编的。几年前观赏过的人,想必也有过同样的念头。影片中所见,都是伟大的命运和伟大的人物。至于我们这些观众,在当时并没有什么了不起的命运,也没有机会去成就这种伟大。电影散场之后,我们走入附近一家咖啡屋里;一杯咖啡一份三明治落肚后,那些曾一度掠过脑际的形而上学思维很快就被我们忘到九霄云外。然而,当我们亲身遭遇一个伟大的命运.当我们必须以同样伟大的精神下决心和它周旋到底,无奈,我们早已经忘怀多年前的青春决断,只好颓然退下,树旗投降。
Those of us who saw the film called Resurrection - taken from a book by Tolstoy - years ago, may have had similar thoughts. Here were great destinies and great men. For us, at that time, there was no great fate; there was no chance to achieve such greatness. After the picture we went to the nearest cafe, and over a cup of coffee and a sandwich we forgot the strange metaphysical thoughts which for one moment had crossed our minds. But when we ourselves were confronted with a great destiny and faced with the decision of meeting it with equal spiritual greatness, by then we had forgotten our youthful resolutions of long ago, and we failed.
她说。"我很庆幸命运给了我这么重的打击。过去,我养尊处优惯了,从来不把精神上的成就当一回事。"她指向土屋的窗外,又说:"那棵树,是我孤独时唯一的朋友。从窗口望出去,她只看得到那棵栗树的一根枝丫,枝丫上绽着两朵花。"我经常对这棵树说话。"我一听,吓了一跳,不太确定她话中的含义。她神智不清了吗?她偶然会有幻觉吗?我急忙问她那棵树有没有答腔。--"有的。"--答些什么呢?一"它对我说,'我在这儿--我在这儿--我就是生命,永恒的生命。"
This young woman knew that she would die in the next few days. But when I talked to her she was cheerful in spite of this knowledge. "I am grateful that fate has hit me so hard," she told me. "In my former life I was spoiled and did not take spiritual accomplishments seriously." Pointing through the window of the hut, she said, "This tree here is the only friend I have in my loneliness." Through that window she could see just one branch of a chestnut tree, and on the branch were two blossoms. "I often talk to this tree," she said to me. I was startled and didn't quite know how to take her words. Was she delirious? Did she have occasional hallucinations? Anxiously I asked her if the tree replied. "Yes." What did it say to her? She answered, "It said to me, 'I am here - I am here - I am life, eternal life.' "
从心理学立场来研究俘虏,我们巳知:惟有容许自己丧失精神防线的人,才会沦为集中营恶势力下的牺牲品。问题是,这所谓的"精神防线",会是或应该是什么?
Psychological observations of the prisoners have shown that only the men who allowed their inner hold on their moral and spiritual selves to subside eventually fell victim to the camp's degenerating influences. The question now arises, what could, or should, have constituted this "inner hold"?
任何人休想预测营中岁月将何时了结,或究竟有无了结之望,因为根本不可能预知。
Former prisoners, when writing or relating their experiences, agree that the most depressing influence of all was that a prisoner could not know how long his term of imprisonment would be. He had been given no date for his release. (In our camp it was pointless even to talk about it.) Actually a prison term was not only uncertain but unlimited. A well-known research psychologist
has pointed out that life in a concentration camp could be called a "provisional existence." We can add to this by defining it as a "provisional existence of unknown limit."
New arrivals usually knew nothing about the conditions at a camp. Those who had come back from other camps were obliged to keep silent, and from some camps no one had returned. On entering camp a change took place in the minds of the men. With the end of uncertainty there came the uncertainty of the end. It was impossible to foresee whether or when, if at all, this form of existence would end.
拉丁字finis,有双重含义:一是终结或结局,一是有待企及的目标。一个人如果看不出他的"暂时存在"将于何时终结,自亦无法朝人生的最终目标迈进。他不再计划未来、安排未来,而这恰恰和生活于正常状况下的人相反。也因此,他整个内在生活的结构将随之改观,衰败的迹象亦将渐渐呈现,并由其他的生命领域(如身体)中暴露出来。举例来说,失业的工人就有类似的处境。他处于暂时性的存在中,就某方面看来,他实在无法替未来作打算,或朝一个既定目标迈进。以失业矿工为研究对象的论著,就显示出这类工人每为时间之"变形"所苦。这种内在时间的"变形",肇因于失业。集中营俘虏也有这种奇特的时间体验,并且也深以为苦。在集中营,一小段的时间--譬如一天当中由于每一分、每一刻都充满了痛苦和疲惫,感觉上仿佛遥无止期。较长的时间--譬如一个星期--则似乎过得很快。当我说营中一日,长于营中一周,许多难友都表示有同感。这种时间体验,多么怪异啊!我不由得想起汤玛斯曼的名著"奇峰"(The Magic Mountain,书中 包含极犀利的心理学观点)。在"奇峰"一书里,一群疗养院的肺结核患者也有类似的心理状况。他们同样不确知何时可以解脱,同样活得没有未来,活得茫无目标。汤玛斯曼即针对此点,研究其精神的演变过程。
The latin word finis has two meanings: the end or the finish, and a goal to reach. A man who could not see the end of his "provisional existence" was not able to aim at an ultimate goal in life. He ceased living for the future, in contrast to a man in normal life. Therefore the whole structure of his inner life changed; signs of decay set in which we know from other areas of life.
The unemployed worker, for example, is in a similar position. His existence has become provisional and in a certain sense he cannot live for the future or aim at a goal. Research work done on unemployed miners has shown that they suffer from a peculiar sort of deformed time - inner time - which is a result of their unemployed state. Prisoners, too, suffered from this strange "time-experience." In camp, a small time unit, a day, for example, filled with hourly tortures and fatigue, appeared endless. A larger time unit, perhaps a week, seemed to pass very quickly. My comrades agreed when I said that in camp a day lasted longer
than a week. How paradoxical was our time-experience! In this connection we are reminded of Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, which contains some very pointed psychological remarks. Mann studies the spiritual development of people who are in an analogous psychological position, i.e., tuberculosis patients in a sanatorium who also know no date for their release. They experience a similar existence - without a future and without a goal.
有名俘虏曾告诉我,他抵达车站后,随着长长的队伍步行到集中营,当时只觉得好象是走在自己的出殡行列里似地。他的生命仿佛早已死去,有如过眼云烟,毫无未来可言。这种死气沉沉的感觉,更因为其它两个原因而更形强烈。在时间上,营中岁月漫无期限,最令人刻骨铭心;在空间上,居住范围过于狭窄,又令人透不过气。铁丝网外的一切,不仅遥不可及,更显得疑幻疑真。营外的人事物及一切的正常生活在俘虏眼中简直恍如隔世。
One of the prisoners, who on his arrival marched with a long column of new inmates from the station to the camp, told me later that he had felt as though he were marching at his own funeral. His life had seemed to him absolutely without future. He regarded it as over and done, as if he had already died. This feeling of lifelessness was intensified by other causes: in time, it was the limitlessness of the term of imprisonment which was most acutely felt; in space, the narrow limits of the prison. Anything outside the barbed wire became remote - out of reach and, in a way, unreal.The events and the people outside, all the normal life there, had a ghostly aspect for the prisoner. The outside life, that is, as much as he could see of it, appeared to him almost as it might have to a dead man who looked at it from another world.
人一旦因为看不到未来而自甘沉沦,便容易有满腹的怀旧愁思。在本书前面,我们曾提到营中人喜欢回味过去,借以忘却眼前的痛苦,现状因而变得较不真实。可是,除去现状中的真实特点,很可能伏下一个危机。当事人势必容易忽略现实中的确存在着、而且可堪运用的机会。把目前的"暂时存在"(provisional existence)当成虚幻不实的存在--这种态度本身正是使俘虏丧失其生命力的一大重要原因。人一旦有了这种态度,任何事物看在他眼里都显得毫无意义。他忘了艰困的外在环境通常能给人一个机会,让人超越自己,从而得到精神上的成长。他不把集中营的困境看成是考验内力的试金石,他不看重自己的生命,反而轻蔑它,当它是无足轻重的玩意儿。他宁可阖上眼皮,耽溺于过去。这样的人自然会觉得人生没有意义了。
A man who let himself decline because he could not see any future goal found himself occupied with retrospective thoughts. In a different connection, we have already spoken of the tendency there was to look into the past, to help make the present, with all its horrors, less real. But in robbing the present of its reality there lay a certain danger. It became easy to overlook the opportunities to make something positive of camp life, opportunities which really did exist. Regarding our "provisional existence" as unreal was in itself an important factor in causing the prisoners to lose their hold on life; everything in a way became pointless. Such people forget that often it is just such an exceptionally difficult external situation which gives man the opportunity to grow spiritually beyond himself. Instead of taking the camp's difficulties as a test of their inner strength, they did not take their life seriously and despised it as something of no consequence. They preferred to close their eyes and to live in the past.
当然,有能力在精神上达到崇高境界的人只有少数几个。但这少数几个,都有机会表现其人性的伟大(即是借着世俗眼中的死亡或一败涂地来表现这种伟大)。这样的人格,若是换上普通的环境,必然造就不出。至于我们这些泛泛之辈,或许该听听俾斯麦这段话:"生命好比让牙医治牙痛,你老是以为最糟糕的情况还在后头,实际上早已过啦!" 照这句话改变一下,我们也可以说集中营内大多数的俘虏,都相信生命的真正机运早已消逝。其实,现实中永远有着机会和挑战。人可以战胜这些经验,把生命扭转成一个内在的胜利;也可以忽视现有的挑战,茫无目的地过一天算一天--正如大多数俘虏所表现的一样。
Life for such people became meaningless. Naturally only a few people were capable of reaching great spiritual heights. But a few were given the chance to attain human greatness even through their apparent worldly failure and death, an accomplishment
which in ordinary circumstances they would never have achieved. To the others of us, the mediocre and the half-hearted, the words of Bismarck could be applied: "Life is like being at the dentist. You always think that the worst is still to come, and yet it is over already." Varying this, we could say that most men in a concentration camp believed that the real opportunities of life had passed. Yet, in reality, there was an opportunity and a challenge. One could make a victory of those experiences turning life into an inner triumph, or one could ignore the challenge and simply vegetate, as did a majority of the prisoners.
任何人若想以心理治疗或心理卫生方法来抗拒集中营对某俘虏身心上的不良影响,就必须为他指出一个可堪期待的未来目标,借以增长他内在的力量。有些俘虏出于本能,也曾设法自行寻找这样的目标。人就这么奇特,他必须瞻望永恒(sub specie eternitatis),才能够活下去。这也正是人在处境极其困厄时的一线生机,即使有时候必须勉强自己,也一样。
Any attempt at fighting the camp's psychopathological influence on the prisoner by psychotherapeutic or psychohygienic methods had to aim at giving him inner strength by pointing out to him a future goal to which he could look forward. Instinctively some of the prisoners attempted to find one on their own. It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future - sub specie aeternitatis. And this is his salvation in the most difficult moments of his existence, although he sometimes has to force his mind to the task.
这种叫人满脑子只想着这些芝麻小事的处境,我实在是厌倦透了。我强迫自己把思潮转向另一个主题。突然间,我看到自己置身于一间明亮、温暖、高雅的讲堂,并且站在讲坛上,面对着全场凝神静声的来宾发表演说。演说的题目则是关于集中营的心理学!那一刻间我所身受的一切苦难,从遥远的科学立场看来全都变得客观起来。我就用这种办法让自己超越困厄的处境。我把所有的痛苦与煎熬当成前尘往事,并加以观察。这样一来,我自已以及我所受的苦难全都变成我手上一项有趣的心理学研究题目了。斯宾诺萨在他的名著《伦理学》上就曾说过:"我们只要把痛苦的情绪,塑成一幅明确清晰的图像,就不会再痛苦了。"
I became disgusted with the state of affairs which compelled me, daily and hourly, to think of only such trivial things. I forced my thoughts to turn to another subject. Suddenly I saw myself standing on the platform of a well-lit, warm and pleasant lecture room. In front of me sat an attentive audience on comfortable upholstered seats. I was giving a lecture on the psychology of the concentration camp! All that oppressed me at that moment became objective, seen and described from the remote viewpoint of science. By this method I succeeded somehow in rising above the situation, above the sufferings of the moment, and I observed them as if they were already of the past. Both I and my troubles became the object of an interesting psychoscientific study undertaken by myself. What does Spinoza say in his Ethics? - "Affectus, qui passio est, desinit esse passio simulatque eius
claram et distinctam formamus ideam." Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.
对未来--自己的来来--失去信心的俘虏,必然难逃劫数。随着信念的丧失,精神防线亦告丧失;此后,自然甘心沉沦,一任身心日趋衰朽。
The prisoner who had lost faith in the future - his future - was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay.
心境(包括有无勇气与希望)的良窳,与身体的免疫能力息息相关。懂得这个道理的人,自然会了解人如果突然失去希望和勇气,很可能因而致死。我的朋友傅先生之死,就是因为预期中的获释未曾实现,致令他陷入绝望使然。突如其来的绝望,减低了他身体上抵抗传染病的能力。由于对未来的信心及活下去的意志皆告瘫痪,身体对病毒便毫无招架之力。结果,他只好一死了之。他梦中那个声音毕竟没错。
Those who know how close the connection is between the state of mind of a man - his courage and hope, or lack of them - and the state of immunity of his body will understand that the sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect. The ultimate cause of my friend's death was that the expected liberation did not come and he was severely disappointed. This suddenly lowered his body's resistance against the latent typhus infection. His faith in the future and his will to live had become paralyzed and his body fell victim to illness - and thus the voice of his dream was right after all.
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尼采说过:"懂得为何而活的人,几乎'任何'痛苦都可以忍受。"这句话,所有与囚犯或俘虏接触的心理专家,都应奉为圭皋。只要有机会,就该给他们一个活下去的目的,才能够增强他们忍受"任何"煎熬的耐力。看不出个人生命有何意义、有何目标,因而觉得活下去没什么意思的人,最是悲惨了。他很快就会迷失。而这种人一听到鼓励和敦促的话,典型的反应便是,"我这辈子再也没什么指望了。"碰到这种反应,你还能说什么?
As we said before, any attempt to restore a man's inner strength in the camp had first to succeed in showing him some future goal. Nietzsche's words, "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how," could be the guiding motto for all psychotherapeutic and psychohygienic efforts regarding prisoners. Whenever there was an opportunity for it, one had to give them a why - an aim - for their lives, in order to strengthen them to bear the terrible how of their existence. Woe to him who saw no more sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on. He was soon lost. The typical reply with which such a man rejected all encouraging arguments was, "I have nothing to expect from life any more." What sort of answer can one give to that?
我们真正需要的是从根本上改革我们对人生的态度。我们应自行学习--并且要教导濒于绝望的人--认清一个事实。真正重要的不是我们对人生有何指望,而是人生对我们有何指望。我们不该继续追问生命有何意义,而该认清自已无时无刻不在接受生命的追问。面对这个追问,我们不能以说话和沉思来答复,而该以正确的行动和作为来答复。到头来,我们终将发现生命的终极意义,就在于探索人生问题的正确答案,完成生命不断安排给每个人的使命。
What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life - daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each
individual.
这些使命因人因时而异,生命的意义亦然。因此,我们不可能以概括的方式来解释生命的意义;而这类的问题也绝无法用泛论来解答。"生命"并不是模棱两可的玩意儿,而是非常真切具体的东西,正如人生的使命也非常真切具体一样。这些使命构成了人的命运;每个人的命运都独一无二且各有不同,无法同别人互作比较。同样的境遇不会重复出现,每个境遇需要当事人给予不同的反应。置身在某种情境当中,人有时候必须以行动来塑造自己的命运;有时候则最好趁机深思熟虑,借以领悟人生的道理!又有时候,光是接受命运,承担个人的十字架即足矣尽矣。总之,每个情境因其特点、性质而迥然有别,其所提出的难题,也永远只有一个确切的解决方法。
These tasks, and therefore the meaning of life, differ from man to man, and from moment to moment. Thus it is impossible to define the meaning of life in a general way. Questions about the meaning of life can never be answered by sweeping statements. "Life" does not mean something vague, but something very real and concrete, just as life's tasks are also very real and concrete. They form man's destiny, which is different and unique for each individual. No man and no destiny can be compared with any other man or any other destiny. No situation repeats itself, and each situation calls for a different response. Sometimes the situation in which a man finds himself may require him to shape his own fate by action. At other times it is more advantageous for him to make use of an opportunity for contemplation and to realize assets in this way. Sometimes man may be required simply to accept fate, to bear his cross. Every situation is distinguished by its uniqueness, and there is always only one right
answer to the problem posed by the situation at hand.
人一旦发觉受苦即是他的命运,就不能不把受苦当作是他的使命--他独特而孤单的使命。他必须认清:即使身在痛苦中,他也是宇宙间孤单而独特的一个人。没有人能替他受苦或解除他的重荷。他唯一的机运就在于他赖以承受痛苦的态度。
When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task; his single and unique task. He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place. His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden.
一旦看透了痛苦的奥秘,我们就不愿再以忽视、幻想或矫情的乐观态度来减轻或缓和集中营内种种折磨所带来的痛苦,反而把痛苦看作是值得承担的负荷。我们不再退缩,只因为我们已了解痛苦暗含成就的机运。正是这种机运,使德国诗人里尔克(Ralner Maria Rilke l873-l926)写出:"有待了结的痛苦,何其多也!"(Wie vielist aufzuleiden!)所谓"有待了结"的痛苦,与一般常说的"有待完成的工作"用意相类。的确,有待我们了结、完成的痛苦,实在非常繁多。所以,我们有必要勇于面对所有的痛苦,并把软弱的时刻和暗弹的泪水减到最低量。然而,我们并不必以流泪为耻;毕竟眼泪证明了我们有承担痛苦的最大勇气。只可惜了解这个道理的人少之又少。有的人偶尔会赧颜表白自己哭过。我就曾问过一位难友,他的水肿是怎么治好的,他红着脸答道:"我用眼泪把它哭好的。"
Once the meaning of suffering had been revealed to us, we refused to minimize or alleviate the camp's tortures by ignoring them or harboring false illusions and entertaining artificial optimism. Suffering had become a task on which we did not want to turn our
backs. We had realized its hidden opportunities for achievement, the opportunities which caused the poet Rilke to write, "Wie viel ist aufzuleiden!" (How much suffering there is to get through!) Rilke spoke of "getting through suffering" as others would talk of "getting through work." There was plenty of suffering for us to get through. Therefore, it was necessary to face up to the full amount of suffering, trying to keep moments of weakness and furtive tears to a minimum. But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer. Only very few realized that. Shamefacedly some confessed occasionally that they had wept, like the comrade who answered my question of how he had gotten over his edema, by confessing, "I have wept it out of my system."
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两名当事人都曾吐露过自杀的意图,并且都运用了典型的论调:他们对生命再也没什么指望了。碰到这种情形,最重要的便是让当事人了解"生命对他仍有指望,未来仍有某件事等着他去完成"。事实上,我们发觉这所谓的"某件事",对其中一位而言,是指他的爱子--后者正在外国等着他。对另一位,则是指一件事,而不是一个人。此人是个科学家,已经撰写了一系列尚待完竣的书籍。这件工作别人是无法代劳的;正如上述那位父亲在他爱子心目中的地位,任何人都无法取代一样。
I remember two cases of would-be suicide, which bore a striking similarity to each other. Both men had talked of their intentions to commit suicide. Both used the typical argument - they had nothing more to expect from life. In both cases it was a question of getting them to realize that life was still expecting something from them; something in the future was expected of them. We found, in fact, that for the one it was his child whom he adored and who was waiting for him in a foreign country. For the other it was a thing, not a person. This man was a scientist and had written a series of books which still needed to be finished. His work could not be done by anyone else, any more than another person could ever take the place of the father in his child's affections.
这种独一无二的特性,使得每个人都与众不同,也使得每个人的存在有其意义。这种特质与创造性的工作和人类之爱息息相关。一个人一旦了解他的地位无可替代,自然容易尽最大心力为自己的存在负起最大责任。他只要知道自己有责任为某件尚待完成的工作或某个殷盼他早归的人而善自珍重,必定无法抛弃生命。他了解自己"为何"而活,因而承受得住"任何"煎熬。
This uniqueness and singleness which distinguishes each individual and gives a meaning to his existence has a bearing on creative work as much as it does on human love. When the impossibility of replacing a person is realized, it allows the responsibility which a man has for his existence and its continuance to appear in all its magnitude. A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the "why" for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any "how."
合适的榜样远比空泛的言辞还要有效。因此,如果有一名资深舍监不与当局同流合污,则他的正义并鼓舞人心的作为,将使他有千万次的机会对辖下诸俘虏发挥他惊人的影响力。
The right example was more effective than words could ever be. A senior block warden who did not side with the authorities had, by his just and encouraging behavior, a thousand opportunities to exert a far-reaching moral influence on those under his jurisdiction.
任何人只要活着,就有理由去怀抱希望。健康、家庭、幸福、专业技能、运气、社会地位等等,这一切都是可以重整旗鼓、东山再起的。毕竟,我们的一身硬骨,都还完好如初。过去不论经历了什么,都可以成为来日的一笔资产。说到这儿,我引用了尼采的一句话:"打不垮我的,将使我更形坚强。"(Was mich nicht umbringt.macht michstarker.)
Whoever was still alive had reason for hope. Health, family, happiness, professional abilities, fortune, position in society - all these were things that could be achieved again or restored. After all, we still had all our bones intact. Whatever we had gone through could still be an asset to us in the future. And I quoted from Nietzsche: "Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich starker."
(That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.)
为了避免流于说教,我再度引用一位诗人的诗句:"尔之经历,无人能夺。"不只我们的经验,连我们做过的一切事、受过的一切痛苦,甚至脑海中有过的一切重大思考虽然已成过去,但全都未曾消失;只因为我们已把它孕育成形,使其存乎人间、曾出现过的也是一种存在,而且可能还是最明确的存在。
Again I quoted a poet - to avoid sounding like a preacher myself - who had written, "Was Du erlebst, kann keine Macht der Welt Dir rauben." (What you have experienced, no power on earth can take from you.) Not only our experiences, but all we have done, whatever great thoughts we may have had, and all we have suffered, all this is not lost, though it is past; we have brought it into being. Having been is also a kind of being, and perhaps the surest kind.
人类的生命无论处在任何情况下,仍都有其意义。这种无限的人生意义,涵盖了痛苦和濒死、困顿和死亡。我请求这些在昏暗营舍中倾听着我的可怜人正视我们当前处境的严肃性,我要他们绝不能放弃希望,而该坚信目前的挣扎纵然徒劳,亦无损其意义与尊严,因而值得大家保住勇气、奋斗到底。我说,在艰难的时刻里,有人--一位朋友、妻子、一个存亡不知的亲人,或造物主--正俯视着我们每个人。他一定不愿意我们使他失望。他一定希望看到我们充满尊严--而非可怜兮兮地承受痛苦,并且懂得怎样面对死亡。
human life, under any circumstances, never ceases to have a meaning, and that this infinite meaning of life includes suffering and dying, privation and death. I asked the poor creatures who listened to me attentively in the darkness of the hut to face up to the seriousness of our position. They must not lose hope but should keep their courage in the certainty that the hopelessness of our struggle did not detract from its dignity and its meaning. I said that someone looks down on each of us in difficult hours - a friend, a wife, somebody alive or dead, or a God - and he would not expect us to disappoint him. He would hope to find us suffering proudly - not miserably - knowing how to die.
p107
然而此际,我却不能不承认我当时所拥有的内在力量实在太过薄弱;否则,我一定更能够和难友在患难中互相砥砺。而且我也相信,我一定错过了许多这样的机会。
When the electric bulb flared up again, I saw the miserable figures of my friends limping toward me to thank me with tears in their eyes. But I have to confess here that only too rarely had I the inner strength to make contact with my companions in suffering and that I must have missed many opportunities for doing so.
注释1
An interesting incident with reference to this SS commander is in regard to the attitude toward him of some of his Jewish prisoners. At the end of the war when the American troops liberated the prisoners from our camp, three young Hungarian Jews hid this commander in the Bavarian woods. Then they went to the commandant of the American Forces who was very eager to capture this SS commander and they said they would tell him where he was but only under certain conditions: the America commander must promise that absolutely no harm would come to this man. After a while, the American officer finally promised these young Jews that the SS commander when taken into captivity would be kept safe from harm. Not only did the American officer keep his promise but, as a matter of fact, the former SS commander of this concentration camp was in a sense restored to his command, for he supervised the collection of clothing among the nearby Bavarian villages, and its distribution to all of us who at that time still wore the clothes we had inherited from other inmates of Camp Auschwitz who were not as fortunate as we, having been sent to the gas chamber immediately upon their arrival at the railway station.
SS 纳粹特殊警察,成立于1925年,包括Gestapo和管理集中营。德语Schutzstaffel, 也就是defense squadron。
一位监工偷偷塞给我一片面包,而我知道,那一定是他由自己的口粮中节省下来的。当时,那一小片面包所代表的心意,令我感动得流泪。那位监工所给予我的,除了一片面包之外,更有包含在他辞色之间的一股温情啊!
I remember how one day a foreman secretly gave me a piece of bread which I knew he must have saved from his breakfast ration. It was far more than the small piece of bread which moved me to tears at that time. It was the human "something" which this man also gave to me - the word and look which accompanied the gift.
由此可知,世界上有--且只有--两种人:正人君子与卑鄙小人。两种人处处都有,散见于社会的各阶层。任一阶层任一团体的人,都不会是清一色君子或清一色小人。所以,即使是挺进队警卫,偶尔也会有一、两个正人君子。
From all this we may learn that there are two races of men in this world, but only these two - the "race" of the decent man and the "race" of the indecent man. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people. In this sense, no group is of "pure race" - and therefore one occasionally found a decent fellow among the camp guards.
我们从这些隐秘中再度窥知人性其实不过是善恶的混和会惊奇不置吗? 善恶的分界线,竟划过了天下众生,直抵人性的最深层;即连在集中营所揭露的深渊底层,亦如此清晰可辨,宁不令人慨叹吗?
Life in a concentration camp tore open the human soul and exposed its depths. Is it surprising that in those depths we again found only human qualities which in their very nature were a mixture of good and evil? The rift dividing good from evil, which goes through all human beings, reaches into the lowest depths and becomes apparent even on the bottom of the abyss which is laid open by the concentration camp.
p109
大伙儿走到缀满鲜花的草地,虽然看得到,且也知道草地就在眼前,无奈心里却空空茫茫,毫无感觉。后来,大伙儿看到一只尾部羽毛极其鲜艳的公鸡,第一丝喜悦的火花才绽现出来,然而绽现的时间十分短促。毕竟,我们还不属于这个自由而美丽的世界啊!
We came to meadows full of flowers. We saw and realized that they were there, but we had no feelings about them. The first spark of joy came when we saw a rooster with a tail of multicolored feathers. But it remained only a spark; we did not yet belong to this world.
p111
获释几天后的某一天,我穿过缀满鲜花的草地,在乡野间一连走了好几里路到营区附近的市镇去。我听得到云雀振翅高飞时欢欣的啁啾。几里方圆之内,一无人迹,只有广阔的大地、无垠的晴空,云雀的欢跃、以及自由的空间。我停下脚步,四下张望,再仰视穹苍,然后,我跪了下来。那一刻间,我对自己和世界,可以说一无所知;而我的心里,永远只回荡着同一句话:"我从窄小的牢狱里向天主呼号,而它在广袤的穹苍间答复了我。"
我究竟在那儿跪了多久,把那句话重复说了几遍,如今已不复记忆。然而我却知道,就在那一天的那一刻中,我的新生命展开了。我一步步地前进,直到我重又成为一个真正的人为止。
One day, a few days after the liberation, I walked through the country past flowering meadows, for miles and miles, toward the market town near the camp. Larks rose to the sky and I could hear their joyous song. There was no one to be seen for miles around; there was nothing but the wide earth and sky and the larks' jubilation and the freedom of space. I stopped, looked around, and up to the sky - and then I went down on my knees. At that moment there was very little I knew of myself or of the worlds - I had but one sentence in mind - always the same: "I called to the Lord from my narrow prison and He answered me in
the freedom of space."
How long I knelt there and repeated this sentence memory can no longer recall. But I know that on that
day, in that hour, my new life started. Step for step I progressed, until I again became a human being.
p112
在这个心理阶段当中,禀性较粗朴原始的人,必然逃不过营中残酷暴行的影响。他们一旦获释,就自以为可以随便且毫不容情地使用自由。在他们眼里,改观了的只有一件事:他们已经摇身一变,成为压迫者,而不再是被压迫者。如今,他们是强权和不公的煽动者,而非饱受凌辱的落水狗。他们根据过去的恐怖经验,认定自己所行不偏;而这想法,常常在小事情上可以看出。譬如,我有次和一位友人要到集中营去,途中经过一片麦田。我很自然地绕道而行,但友人却抓住我的手,把我拖着走过麦田。我结结巴巴地说不该践踏农作物,不料他勃然大怒,瞪着我咆哮道:"不用说了,我们难道被剥夺得还不够多?
During this psychological phase one observed that people with natures of a more primitive kind could not escape the influences of the brutality which had surrounded them in camp life. Now, being free, they thought they could use their freedom licentiously and ruthlessly. The only thing that had changed for them was that they were now the oppressors instead of the oppressed. They became instigators, not objects, of willful force and injustice. They justified their behavior by their own terrible experiences. This was often revealed in apparently insignificant events. A friend was walking across a field with me toward the camp when suddenly we came to a field of green crops. Automatically, I avoided it. but he drew his arm through mine and dragged me through it. I stammered something about not treading down the young crops. He became annoyed, gave me an angry look and shouted, "You don't say! And hasn't enough been taken from us? My wife and child have been gassed - not to mention everything else - and you would forbid me to tread on a few stalks of oats!"
这种人唯有经过苦口婆心的劝导,才会慢慢领悟到一个极其平凡的事实:没有人有权做坏事,即便是受尽欺凌的人亦然。这种苦口婆心的劝导工作,必须有人肯予承担;否则后果势必远比损失几千棵小麦还严重得多。我仍然记得有个难友卷起袖子,指着我的鼻子大叫:"等我回家以后,这只手要是没沾满血腥,我一定把它剁掉!"在此我必须声明,说这话的人并不是个坏家伙。他在集中营里和出营以后,一直是我最好的伙伴。
Only slowly could these men be guided back to the commonplace truth that no one has the right to do wrong, not even if wrong has been done to them. We had to strive to lead them back to this truth, or the consequences would have been much worse than the loss of a few thousand stalks of oats.
p113
幻灭的经验就不同了。当其时,显得残酷的,不是乡人(他们的肤浅和淡漠,真叫人厌恶得恨不得找个洞钻进去,永远不再看到任何人);而是命运本身。一个多年来自以为已尝遍人世间最惨烈痛苦的人,却发觉痛苦永无止境;发觉自己可能还要再吃更多的苦,而且苦得更厉害。
Bitterness was caused by a number of things he came up against in his former home town. When, on his return, a man found that in many places he was met only with a shrug of the shoulders and with hackneyed phrases, he tended to become bitter and to ask himself why he had gone through all that he had. When he heard the same phrases nearly everywhere - "We did
not know about it." and "We, too, have suffered." then he asked himself, have they really nothing better to say to me?
The experience of disillusionment is different. Here it was not one's fellow man (whose superficiality and lack of feeling was so disgusting that one finally felt like creeping into a hole and neither hearing nor seeing human beings any more) but fate itself which seemed so cruel. A man who for years had thought he had reached the absolute limit of all possible suffering now found that suffering has no limits, and that he could suffer still more, and still more intensely.
我们并不是希求幸福--使我们有勇气,使我们的痛苦、牺牲及死亡有其意义的并不是幸福本身。然而,我们也没有面对不幸的心理准备。正因为这样,为数甚众的俘虏在重返故里之时才受不了幻灭感的打击而消沉颓丧难再振作。精神医师也很难帮助他们克服这一层心理障碍,重新展望人生。尽管如此,身为精神医生的人仍不应就此束手,反而该把这个心理障碍看作是一项额外的刺激物。
We all said to each other in camp that there could be no earthly happiness which could compensate for all we had suffered. We were not hoping for happiness - it was not that which gave us courage and gave meaning to our suffering, our sacrifices and our dying. And yet we were not prepared for unhappiness. This disillusionment, which awaited not a small number of prisoners,
was an experience which these men have found very hard to get over and which, for a psychiatrist, is also very difficult to help them overcome. But this must not be a discouragement to him; on the contrary, it should provide an added stimulus.
p115
而重归故里的人最重要的一个体验,便是历尽沧桑之后所享有的一个美妙感觉:从今以后,除了上苍,什么都用不着畏惧了。
The crowning experience of all, for the homecoming man, is the wonderful feeling that, after all he has suffered, there is nothing he need fear any more - except his God
p120
同心理分析比起来,意义治疗是较少回顾与较少内省的方法。意义治疗的焦点是放在将来,也就是说,焦点是放在病人将来要完成的工作与意义上。同时意义治疗尽量不强调所有"恶性循环的形成"(vicious circle formation)及"反馈机质"(feedback mechanisms)因为这两者恰恰足以助长"神经官能症"。这样一来,神经官能症患者典型的自我中心遂告瓦解,不再益形增强、恶化。
inasmuch as logotherapy, in comparison with psychoanalysis, is a method less retrospective and less introspective. Logotherapy focuses rather on the future, that is to say, on the meanings to be fulfilled by the patient in his future (Logotherapy, indeed, is a meaning-centered psychotherapy.) At the same time, logotherapy defocuses all the vicious-circle
formations and feedback mechanisms which play such a great role in the development of neuroses. Thus, the typical self-centeredness of the neurotic is broken up instead of being continually fostered and reinforced.
精神官能症病人企图逃避他的生命课题,不愿力求领会;若使他醒觉,清晰意识到自己的生命课题,则能激起他的潜力以克服神经官能症。
To be sure, this kind of statement is an oversimplification; yet in logotherapy the patient is actually confronted with and reoriented toward the meaning of his life. And to make him aware of this meaning can contribute much to his ability to overcome his neurosis.
p121
因此我所提出的"求意义的意志"(a will to meaning)与弗洛依德心理分析学派(Freudian Psychoanalysls)所强调的"快乐原则"(Pleasure principle),以及与阿德勒心理学派(Adlerian psychofogy)所强调的"求权力的意志"(the will to power)大不相同。
Let me explain why I have employed the term "logotherapy" as the name for my theory. Logos is a Greek word which denotes "meaning." Logotherapy, or, as it has been called by some authors, "The Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy," focuses on the meaning of human existence as well as on man's search for such a meaning. According to logotherapy, this striving to find a meaning in one's life is the primary motivational force in man. That is why I speak of a will to meaning in contrast to the pleasure principle (or, as we could also term it, the will to pleasure) on which Freudian psychoanalysis is centered, as well as in contrast to the will to power on which Adlerian psychology, using the term "striving for superiority," is focused.
求意义的意志对大多数人是一"事实",而非一"信条"。
Man, however, is able to live and even to die for the sake of his ideals and values!
p122
当然,会有某些个别情况,其表示的价值观只是潜藏的内在冲突之伪装。如果如此,它们只代表法则的某些例外,而不能视之为法则本身。对于这些情况,精神动力学的解释可以揭发其潜意识底下的因素;而我们必须处理其虚伪的价值观(最好的例子是执迷不悟的顽固分子),这样便可揭开其面具,暴露其真相。不过,一旦面临到人真实的一面(也就是人渴望一生尽可能充满意义的事实),就该立刻停止揭穿面具的举动。如果不立刻停止,适足以显示揭发者有意贬低他人灵性上的渴望。
Of course, there may be some cases in which an individual's concern with values is really a camouflage of hidden inner conflicts; but, if so, they represent the exceptions from the rule rather than the rule itself. In these cases we have actually to deal with pseudovalues, and as such they have to be unmasked. Unmasking, however, should stop as soon as one is confronted with what is authentic and genuine in man, e.g., man's desire for a life that is as meaningful as possible. If it
does not stop then, the only thing that the "unmasking psychologist" really unmasks is his own "hidden motive" - namely, his unconscious need to debase and depreciate what is genuine, what is genuinely human, in man.
p123
一个人求意义的意志也能遭受挫折即意义治疗学所称谓的"存在的挫折"。"存在"(Existential)一词有三种用法:(1)表达"存有"本身,例如独特的人类存在型式。(2)表达存在的意义。(3)在个人的存在中努力去寻找具体的意义,这就是上面所说的"求意义的意志"。
Man's will to meaning can also be frustrated, in which case logotherapy speaks of "existential frustration." The term "existential" may be used in three ways: to refer to (1) existence itself, i.e., the specifically human mode of being; (2) the meaning of existence; and (3) the striving to find a concrete meaning in personal existence, that is to say, the will to meaning.
灵性神经官能症"(Noogenic neufoses)非起源于心理因素,而是源自人类存在的心灵层次(希腊字"noos"意指心灵mind)。这新创的名词表示所有个人人格中有关灵性的部分。我们必须记住,在意义治疗学的架构中,"灵性"一词(spiritual)并非只是宗教上的含义,而是指人类生命中一特殊的层次。
Existential frustration can also result in neuroses. For this type of neuroses, logotherapy has coined the term "noögenic neuroses" in contrast to neuroses in the traditional sense of the word, i.e., psychogenic neuroses. Noögenic neuroses have their origin not in the psychological but rather in the "noölogical" (from the Greek noös meaning mind) dimension of human
existence. This is another logotherapeutic term which denotes anything pertaining to the specifically human dimension.
对于心灵性神经官能症患者,适当而正确的治疗,显然通常并不是心理治疗,而是意义治疗,此治疗法者胆敢进入人类生命中的灵性层次中去。事实上希腊字"Logos"不只表示"意义"也有"灵性"的意思。人类灵性的产物,诸如渴望存在的意义以及这种渴望的受挫,都必须用含有灵性意味的意义治疗法来施予治疗。治疗者热诚且认真地面对存在意义的问题,而不是去追溯潜意识的根源且处理本能的问题。
Noögenic neuroses do not emerge from conflicts between drives and instincts but rather from existential problems. Among such problems, the frustration of the will to meaning plays a large role.
It is obvious that in noögenic cases the appropriate and adequate therapy is not psychotherapy in general but rather logotherapy; a therapy, that is, which dares to enter the specifically human dimension. Let me quote the following instance:
有一位高级美国外交官到我在维也纳的诊所,希望能继续接受精神分析治疗。他已经在纽约接受一位分析家治疗长达五年之久。一开头,我就问他为什么会认为自己需要分析?第一次分析是在何种情况下开始的?结果我弄清楚原来这位病人不满意他的事业,并且感觉要遵从美国的外交政策非常困难。然而过去那位精神分析家一再地告诉他应该跟父亲和解亲善,因为美国政府及其上司皆为他父亲的"心像",因此他对工作的不满是由于潜意识里隐藏着对父亲的憎恨之故。分析持续了五年,病人愈来愈接受分析家的解释,直到最后他已经看不见现实的森林,而只见到幻影的树木。我与他会谈了几次之后,问题清晰呈现,他的职业使其求意义的意志受挫,他真正地渴望从事其它种类的工作。我认为根本没有理由不放弃这份事业,他如此做了,结果非常满意喜悦。最近他向我报告,虽然从事新工作已经过了五年多,他仍然深感满意。对于这个病例,我怀疑是否要像对待一位神经官能症患者那样去处理,我认为他不需要心理治疗,甚至也不需要意义治疗,理由很简单,因为事实上他根本不是病人!并非每个冲突都必然是病态的,有许多冲突可以是正常而且健康的。类似的概念,"痛苦"并非总是神经官能症者的病理症状,"痛苦"有时可以是人性的伟业,尤其是因存在的挫折所产生的痛苦。我要断然否认,一个人寻找他的存在意义,或怀疑其存在意义,皆是源自某种疾病。"存在的挫折"既非病理学亦非病源学的名词。一个人的忧虑或失望超过他生命的价值感时,只能说是一种"灵性的灾难",而不能视之为一种心理疾病。如果一位医师将灵性的灾准视为心理疾病,就会将其病人的"存在性失望"用大量的安神剂埋葬掉了。医师的真正工作是引导病人通过存在的危机而获得成长与发展。
A high-ranking American diplomat came to my office in Vienna in order to continue psychoanalytic treatment which he had begun five years previously with an analyst in New York. At the outset I asked him why he thought he should be analyzed, why his analysis had been started in the first place. It turned out that the patient was discontented with his career and found it most
difficult to comply with American foreign policy. His analyst, however, had told him again and again that he should try to reconcile himself with his father; because the government of the U.S. as well as his superiors were "nothing but" father images and, consequently, his dissatisfaction with his job was due to the hatred he unconsciously harbored toward his father. Through an analysis lasting five years, the patient had been prompted more and more to accept his analyst's interpretations until he finally was unable to see the forest of reality for the trees of symbols and images. After a few interviews, it was clear that his will to meaning was frustrated by his vocation, and he actually longed to be engaged in some other kind of work. As there
was no reason for not giving up his profession and embarking on a different one, he did so, with most gratifying results. He has remained contented in this new occupation for over five years, as he recently reported. I doubt that, in this case, I was dealing with a neurotic condition at all, and that is why I thought that he did not need any psychotherapy, nor even logotherapy, for the simple reason that he was not actually a patient. Not every conflict is necessarily neurotic; some amount of conflict is normal and healthy. In a similar sense suffering is not always a pathological phenomenon; rather than being a symptorn of neurosis, suffering may well be a human achievement, especially if the suffering grows out of existential frustration. I would strictly deny that one's search for a meaning to his existence, or even his doubt of it, in every case is derived from, or results in, any disease. Existential frustration is in itself neither pathological nor pathogenic. A man's concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease. It may well be that interpreting the first in terms of the latter motivates a doctor to bury his patient's existential despair under a heap of tranquilizing drugs. It is his task, rather, to pilot the patient through his existential crisis of growth and development.
"意义治疗"的任务,在于协助病人找出他生命中的意义,亦即尽量使他随着分析的过程理会到存在中隐藏的意义。从这方面看来,意义治疗与精神分析有些相像。然而,意义治疗努力使人再意识到某些东西,因此它不光是注意人潜意识内的本能因素,还关心灵性的事实,诸如:人潜伏而尚待实现的存在意义,及其求意义的意志。但是,任何分析法,甚至是那些未涉及心灵或灵性层次的分析法,在其治疗过程当中,都会企图使病人理会到,他内心深处所渴望的到底是什么。意义治疗与精神分析最主要的差异是在于前者认为:作为一个人,最重要的关怀是实现意义与价值,而不仅仅为了满足驱策力及本能,或只是为平衡协调原我,自我、超我间的冲突;或只是为了去适应社会与环境而已。
Logotherapy regards its assignment as that of assisting the patient to find meaning in his life. Inasmuch as logotherapy makes him aware of the hidden logos of his existence, it is an analytical process. To this extent, logotherapy resembles psychoanalysis. However, in logotherapy's attempt to make something conscious again it does not restrict its activity to instinctual facts within the individual's unconscious but also cares for existential realities, such as the potential meaning of his existence to be fulfilled as well as his will to meaning. Any analysis, however, even when it refrains from including the noölogical dimension in its therapeutic process, tries to make the patient aware of what he actually longs for in the depth of his being. Logotherapy deviates from psychoanalysis insofar as it considers man a being whose main concern consists in fulfilling a meaning, rather than in the mere gratification and satisfaction of drives and instincts, or in merely reconciling the conflicting claims of id, ego and superego, or in the mere adaptation and adjustment to society and environment.
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我应该肯定,人的寻求意义与价值可能会引起内在的紧张而非内在的平衡,然而这种紧张为心理健康是不可缺少的先决条件。我要大胆地说,这世界上并没有什么东西能帮助人在最坏的情况中还能活下去.除非人体认到他的生命有一意义。正如尼采充满智慧的名言:"参透'为何',才能迎接'任何'。"(He who has a "why" to live for can bear almost any "how")我认为对任何心理治疗,这句话都可作为座右铭。在纳粹集中营内,我们可以亲眼看到,那些知道还有一件任务等待他去完成的人,最容易活下去。后来美国的精神医学家在日本与朝鲜的集中营内也证实了此点。
To be sure, man's search for meaning may arouse inner tension rather than inner equilibrium. However, precisely such tension is an indispensable prerequisite of mental health. There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one's life. There is much wisdom in the words of Nietzsche: "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how." I can see in these words a motto which holds true for any psychotherapy. In the Nazi concentration camps, one could have witnessed that those who knew that there was a task waiting for them to fulfill were most apt to survive. The same conclusion has since been reached by other authors of books on concentration camps, and also by psychiatric investigations into Japanese, North Korean and North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camps.
就拿我自己作例子,当我被抓进奥斯维辛集中营时,我正准备付梓的原稿被没收了。(这是我第一本书的笫一个版本,英译本在一九五五年由Alfred A.Knopf出版,书名为《医师与心灵:意义治疗法简介》--The Doctor and the Soul:An Introduction to Logotherapy)。当然啦,那时我最深的心愿是要再次写出这本书,而这竟帮助我活着度过集中营的严酷。例如当我患伤寒感觉很难受时,我用碎纸片记下许多摘要,以备重获自由时能重新著书。我确信这份动机协助我度过巴伐利亚集中营黑暗的牢房,而克服了令人崩溃的危机。
As for myself, when I was taken to the concentration camp of Auschwitz, a manuscript of mine ready for publication was confiscated.1 Certainly, my deep desire to write this manuscript anew helped me to survive the rigors of the camps I was in. For instance, when in a camp in Bavaria I fell ill with typhus fever, I jotted down on little scraps of paper many notes intended to enable me to rewrite the manuscript, should I live to the day of liberation. I am sure that this reconstruction of my lost manuscript in the dark barracks of a Bavarian concentration camp assisted me in overcoming the danger of cardiovascular collapse.
注释1:It was the first version of my first book, the English translation of which was published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, in 1955, under the title The Doctor and the Soul: An Introduction to Logotherapy.
因此,我们可以看出心理健康是奠基于某种程度的紧张:人"已经达成"与"还应该完成"二者之间的紧张,或者是:人"是什么"与"应该成为什么"之间的紧张。这种紧张是人类生命中固有的属性,为心理健康是不可或缺的条件,因此,我们不必再迟疑去要求人实现自身潜在的意义了;也只有这样作,才能唤醒人潜伏状态中的求意义之意志。我认为我们如果以为人最主要的需求是"平衡"(生物学上称为Homeostasis),是没有紧张的状态,那将是心理卫生上的一种危险的错误观念。人真正最需要的并非不紧张,而是为了某一值得的目标而奋斗挣扎。他所需要的不是不惜任何代价地解除紧张,而是唤醒那等待他去实现的潜在意义。人所需要的不是生物学的平衡,而是我所称的"心灵动力学"--心灵动力在紧张的两极之中,一极代表需实现的"意义",另一极代表必须实现此意义的"人"。我们不要以为这只有对正常情况中的人才是如此,其实对于精神官能症病人甚至更加确实。如果建筑师想要巩固一座老朽的拱门,便需增加覆盖在拱门上的负荷,如此拱门的各部分才能接合得更紧密坚固。所以,如果治疗者希望增长病人的心理健康,就不必害怕经由再次探索其生命的意义而增加他的负荷。
Thus it can be seen that mental health is based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ought to accomplish, or the gap between what one is and what one should become. Such a tension is inherent in the human being and therefore is indispensable to mental well-being. We should not, then, be hesitant about challenging man with a potential meaning for him to fulfill. It is only thus that we evoke his will to meaning from its state of latency. I consider it a dangerous misconception of mental hygiene to assume that what man needs in the first place is equilibrium or, as it is called in biology, "homeostasis," i.e., a tensionless state. What man actually needs is not a tensionless
state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him. What man needs is not homeostasis but what I call "noödynamics," i.e., the existential dynamics in a polar field of tension where one pole is represented by a meaning that is to be fulfilled and the other pole by the man who has to fulfill it. And one should not think that this holds true only for normal conditions; in neurotic individuals, it is even more valid. If architects want to strengthen a decrepit arch, they increase the load which is laid upon it, for thereby the parts are joined more firmly together. So if therapists wish to foster their patients' mental health, they should not be afraid to create a sound amount of tension through a reorientation toward the meaning of one's life.
提出上述意义治疗的优点之后,继而我要说明它的缺点。今天有太多的病人抱怨,对自己的生命感到全部无意义,以及终极的无意义。他们无法体认到为了它就值得活下去的某种意义,他们被内在的空虚所萦扰纠缠,他们中有一种虚幻的寂寞。这种境遇我称它为"存在的空虚"。
Having shown the beneficial impact of meaning orientation, I turn to the detrimental influence of that feeling of which so many patients complain today, namely the feeling of the total and ultimate meaninglessness of their lives. They lack the awareness of a meaning worth living for. They are haunted by the experience of their inner emptiness, a void within themselves; they are caught in that situation which I have called the "existential vacuum."
p129
事实上,现时代中所兴起的无聊厌烦感,比起灾难疾病要给精神科医师带来更多的问题。而且这类问题必定会日益增加,因为自动化机器不断进步,使一般人增多了闲暇的时间,但可怜的是其中有许多人根本不知道要用这些新获得的自由时间来作些什么?
The existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of boredom. Now we can understand Schopenhauer when he said that mankind was apparently doomed to vacillate eternally between the two extremes of distress and boredom. In actual fact, boredom is now causing, and certainly bringing to psychiatrists, more problems to solve than distress. And these problems are growing increasingly crucial, for progressive automation will probably lead to an enormous increase in the leisure hours available to the average worker. The pity of it is that many of these will not know what to do with all their newly acquired free
time.
领养老金者及老年人的危机问题也是如此。
Let us consider, for instance, "Sunday neurosis," that kind of depression which afflicts people who become aware of the lack of content in their lives when the rush of the busy week is over and the void within themselves becomes manifest. Not a few cases of suicide can be traced back to this existential vacuum. Such widespread phenomena as depression, aggression and addiction are not understandable unless we recognize the existential vacuum underlying them. This is also true of the crises of pensioners and aging people.
还有许多种不同的面具及伪装隐藏着存在的空虚。有时求意义的意志受到挫折,于是用其他代替者作为朴偿,例如求权力的意志(包括最原始型态的权力意志)以及求金钱的意志。也有些时候.这种受挫的求意义意志被求享乐的意志所取代,因此成为性的代偿作用(compensation)。在这些案例身上我们可以看到,因为存在的空虚,性欲遂猖獗泛滥。
Moreover, there are various masks and guises under which the existential vacuum appears. Sometimes the frustrated will to meaning is vicariously compensated for by a will to power, including the most primitive form of the will to power, the will to money. In other cases, the place of frustrated will to meaning is taken by the will to pleasure. That is why existential frustration often eventuates in sexual compensation. We can observe in such cases that the sexual libido becomes rampant in the existential vacuum.
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人类的存在也是如此,一个人不能去寻找抽象的生命意义,每个人都有他自己的特殊天职或使命,而此使命是需要具体地去实现的。他的生命无法重复,也不可取代。所以每一个人都是独特的,也只有他具特殊的机遇去完成其独特的天赋使命。生命中的每一种情境向人提出挑战,同时提出疑难要他去解决,因此生命意义的问题事实上应该颠倒过来。人不应该去问他的生命意义是什么。他必须要认清,“他”才是被询问的人。一言以蔽之,每一个人都被生命询问,而他只有用自己的生命才能回答此问题;只有以“负责”来答复生命。因此,意义治疗学认为“能够负责”(Responsibleness)是人类存在最重要的本质。
One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone's task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.
As each situation in life represents a challenge to man and presents a problem for him to solve, the question of the meaning of life may actually be reversed. Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that
it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible. Thus, logotherapy sees in responsibleness the very essence of human existence.
这种强调“能够负责”的特色,就显示在意义治疗法的一句金玉良言中:“假设你已经生活在第二度的生命中,并假设你第一次作错了,而现在还可能作错一样。”依我看来,再没有其它辞汇,可以比这句金玉良言更能激发起一个人的负责精神了。它叫人先假想现在已成过往,再假想过往可能无可改动、弥补。这种训示,使人意识到生命的有限,体悟到人由自身及生命中所创获的一切都具有决定的意义。
This emphasis on responsibleness is reflected in the categorical imperative of logotherapy, which is: "Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!" It seems to me that there is nothing which would stimulate a man's sense of responsibleness more than this maxim, which invites him to imagine first that the present is past and, second, that the past may yet be changed and amended. Such a precept confronts him with life's finiteness as well as the finality of what he makes out of both his life and himself.
因此,病人必须自行决定他究竟该对社会负责,抑或对良知负责。不过,也有不少人自认为该对上苍,对天主负责。他们不只以承担责任的角度,更以承行上天旨意的角度来诠释自己的生命。
Logotherapy tries to make the patient fully aware of his own responsibleness; therefore, it must leave to him the option for what, to what, or to whom he understands himself to be responsible. That is why a logotherapist is the least tempted of all psychotherapists to impose value judgments on his patients, for he will never permit the patient to pass to the doctor the responsibility of judging.
It is, therefore, up to the patient to decide whether he should interpret his life task as being responsible to society or to his own conscience. There are people, however, who do not interpret their own lives merely in terms of a task assigned to them but also in terms of the taskmaster who has assigned it to them.
意义治疗并非一种教训,也非传道。它不是逻辑的推理,亦不是伦理的劝诫。打个比喻来说。意义治疗家所扮演的角色与其说是一个画家,毋宁说是一名眼科医师。画家企图把他所看见的浮世图通传给我们,而眼科医师则是要我们自己去看见真实的世界。意义治疗者的角色在于放宽及开阔病人的视野,以使他能意识到整个的意义与价值体系。意义治疗不需要硬加给病人任何判断,因为事实上,真理会自行呈现,无需他人干涉或居间介入。
Logotherapy is neither teaching nor preaching. It is as far removed from logical reasoning as it is from moral exhortation. To put it figuratively, the role played by a logotherapist is that of an eye specialist rather than that of a painter. A painter tries to convey to us a picture of the world as he sees it; an ophthalmologist tries to enable us to see the world as it really is. The logotherapist's role consists of widening and broadening the visual field of the patient so that the whole spectrum of potential meaning becomes conscious and visible to him.
//所以如果绘画能够以绘者的技法与视角引导观者自己的感受并从中寻获意味。
人是一种能够负责的物种,他必须实现他潜在的生命意义。我这样说,是希望强调:生命的真谛,必须在世界中找寻,而非在人身上或内在精神中找寻,因为它不是个封闭的体系。同样地,我们无法在所谓的"自我实现"上找到人类存在的真正目标;因为人类的存在,本质上是要"自我超越"(Self-transcendence)而非自我实现(Self-actualization)。事实上,自我实现也不可能作为存在的目标,理由很简单,因为一个人愈是拚命追求它,愈是得不到它。一个人为实践其生命意义而投注了多少心血,他就会有多少程度的自我实现。换言之,"自我实现"如果作为目的,是永不能获得的,它只是当"自我超越"之后的副产品而已。
By declaring that man is responsible and must actualize the potential meaning of his life, I wish to stress that the true meaning of life is to be discovered in the world rather than within man or his own psyche, as though it were a closed system. I have termed this constitutive characteristic "the self-transcendence of human existence." It denotes the fact that being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself - be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself - by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love - the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. What is called selfactualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it. In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side effect of self-transcendence.
Thus far we have shown that the meaning of life always changes, but that it never ceases to be. According to logotherapy, we can discover this meaning in life in three different ways:
(1) by creating a work or doing a deed;
(2) by experiencing something or encountering someone;
(3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.
The first, the way of achievement or accomplishment, is quite obvious. The second and third need further elaboration. The second way of finding a meaning in life is by experiencing something - such as goodness, truth and beauty - by experiencing nature and culture or, last but not least, by experiencing another human being in his very uniqueness - by loving him.
p134
爱是进入另一个人最深人格核心之内的唯一方法。没有一个人能完全了解另一个人的本质精髓,除非爱他。借着心灵的爱情,我们才能看到所爱者的真髓特性。更甚者,我们还能看出所爱者潜藏着什么,这些潜力是应该实现却还未实现的。而且由于爱情,还可以使所爱者真的去实现那些潜能。凭借使他理会到自己能够成为什么,应该成为什么,而使他原有的潜能发掘出来。
Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.
In logotherapy, love is not interpreted as a mere epiphenomenon3 of sexual drives and instincts in the sense of a so-called sublimation. Love is as primary a phenomenon as sex. Normally, sex is a mode of expression for love. Sex is justified, even sanctified, as soon as, but only as long as, it is a vehicle of love. Thus love is not understood as a mere side-effect of sex; rather, sex is a way of expressing the experience of that ultimate togetherness which is called love.
The third way of finding a meaning in life is by suffering.
注释3:A phenomenon that occurs as the result of a primary phenomenon.
p135
痛苦在发现意义的时候,就不成为痛苦了,例如具有意义的牺牲便是。
In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.
Edith Weiss Kopf-Joelson,在其有关意义冶疗的文章上说:"心理卫生哲学日趋强调人应该快乐;而不快乐是适应困难的一种症状。这样的价值现应该对我们四周许多由不快乐所引起的不幸负责。"在她另一篇论文中,表达了希望意义治疗学可以"抵制当前美国文化不健康的趋势。当前的趋势是以痛苦为耻而非为荣,因此使得一个人不但不快乐,还要因不快乐而羞耻。"
Edith Weisskopf-Joelson, before her death professor of psychology at the University of Georgia, contended, in her article on logotherapy, that "our current mental-hygiene philosophy stresses the idea that people ought to be happy, that unhappiness is a symptom of maladjustment. Such a value system might be responsible for the fact that the burden of unavoidable unhappiness is increased by unhappiness about being unhappy."4 And in another paper she expressed the hope that logotherapy "may help counteract certain unhealthy trends in the present-day culture of the United States, where the incurable sufferer is given very little opportunity to be proud of his suffering and to consider it ennobling rather than degrading" so that
"he is not only unhappy, but also ashamed of being unhappy."
4"Some Comments on a Viennese School of Psychiatry," The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 51 (1955), pp. 701 - 3 1365
p138
More and more, a psychiatrist is approached today by patients who confront him with human problems rather than neurotic symptoms. Some of the people who nowadays call on a psychiatrist would have seen a pastor, priest or rabbi in former days. Now they often refuse to be handed over to a clergyman and instead confront the doctor with questions such as, "What is
the meaning of my life?"
p141
人所要求的并非如同某些存在主义哲学家所言,是去忍受生命的无意义;而是要忍受自身无能力以理性抓住生命的绝对意义。"意义"比"逻辑"更加幽深。
This ultimate meaning necessarily exceeds and surpasses the finite intellectual capacities of man; in logotherapy, we speak in this context of a supermeaning. What is demanded of man is not, as some existential philosophers teach, to endure the meaninglessness of life, but rather to bear his incapacity to grasp its unconditional meaningfulness in rational terms. Logos is deeper than logic.
p143
生命的短暂性
Those things which seem to take meaning away from human life include not only suffering but dying as well. I never tire of saying that the only really transitory aspects of life are the potentialities; but as soon as they are actualized, they are rendered realities at that very moment; they are saved and delivered into the past, wherein they are rescued and preserved from transitoriness. For, in the past, nothing is irretrievably lost but everything irrevocably stored.
Thus, the transitoriness of our existence in no way makes it meaningless. But it does constitute our responsibleness; for everything hinges upon our realizing the essentially transitory possibilities. Man constantly makes his choice concerning the mass of present potentialities; which of these will be condemned to nonbeing and which will be actualized? Which choice will be made an actuality once and forever, an immortal "footprint in the sands of time"? At any moment, man must decide, for better or for worse, what will be the monument of his existence.
p145
过度注意 过分渴望
Ironically enough, in the same way that fear brings to pass what one is afraid of, likewise a forced intention makes impossible what one forcibly wishes. This excessive intention, or "hyper-intention," as I call it, can be observed particularly in cases of sexual neurosis. The more a man tries to demonstrate his sexual potency or a woman her ability to experience orgasm, the less they are able to succeed. Pleasure is, and must remain, a side-effect or by-product, and is destroyed and spoiled to the degree to which it is made a goal in itself.
p153
集体性神经官能症 The Collective Neurosis
Every age has its own collective neurosis, and every age needs its own psychotherapy to cope with it. The existential vacuum which is the mass neurosis of the present time can be described as a private and personal form of nihilism; for nihilism can be defined as the contention that being has no meaning. As for psychotherapy, however, it will never be able to cope with this state of affairs on a mass scale if it does not keep itself free from the impact and influence of the contemporary trends of a nihilistic philosophy; otherwise it represents a symptom of the mass neurosis rather than its possible cure. Psychotherapy would not only reflect a nihilistic philosophy but also, even though unwillingly and unwittingly, transmit to the patient what is actually a caricature rather than a true picture of man.
First of all, there is a danger inherent in the teaching of man's "nothingbutness," the theory that man is nothing but the result of biological, psychological and sociological conditions, or the product of heredity and environment. Such a view of man makes a neurotic believe what he is prone to believe anyway, namely, that he is the pawn and victim of outer influences or inner circumstances. This neurotic fatalism is fostered and strengthened by a psychotherapy which denies that man is free.
To be sure, a human being is a finite thing, and his freedom is restricted. It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions. As I once put it: "As a professor in two fields, neurology and psychiatry, I am fully aware of
the extent to which man is subject to biological, psychological and sociological conditions. But in addition to being a professor in two fields I am a survivor of four camps - concentration camps, that is - and as such I also bear witness to the unexpected extent to which man is capable of defying and braving even the worst conditions conceivable."17
注释17 "Value Dimensions in Teaching," a color television film produced by Hollywood Animators, Inc., for the California Junior
College Association.
p154
对泛决定论的批判 Critique of Pan-Determinism
Psychoanalysis has often been blamed for its socalled pan-sexualism. I, for one, doubt whether this reproach has ever been legitimate. However, there is something which seems to me to be an even more erroneous and dangerous assumption, namely, that which I call "pan-determinism." By that I mean the view of man which disregards his capacity to take a stand toward any conditions whatsoever. Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining. Man does not simply exist but always
decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment.
By the same token, every human being has the freedom to change at any instant. Therefore, we can predict his future only within the large framework of a statistical survey referring to a whole group; the individual personality, however, remains essentially unpredictable.
The basis for any predictions would be represented by biological, psychological or sociological conditions. Yet one of the main features of human existence is the capacity to rise above such conditions, to grow beyond them. Man is capable of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the better if necessary.
Let me cite the case of Dr. J.
How can we dare to predict the behavior of man? We may predict the movements of a machine, of an automaton; more than this, we may even try to predict the mechanisms or "dynamisms" of the human psyche as well. But man is more than psyche.
Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.
//虚无主义哲学家
p156
精神病学信条 Psychiatric Credo
There is nothing conceivable which would so condition a man as to leave him without the slightest freedom. Therefore, a residue of freedom, however limited it may be, is left to man in neurotic and even psychotic cases. Indeed, the innermost core of the patient's personality is not even touched by a psychosis.
An incurably psychotic individual may lose his usefulness but yet retain the dignity of a human being. This is my psychiatric credo. Without it I should not think it worthwhile to be a psychiatrist. For whose sake? Just for the sake of a damaged brain machine which cannot be repaired? If the patient were not definitely more, euthanasia would be justified.
p157
再赋予人性的精神病学 Psychiatry Rehumanized
For too long a time - for half a century, in fact - psychiatry tried to interpret the human mind merely as a mechanism, and consequently the therapy of mental disease merely in terms of a technique. I believe this dream has been dreamt out. What now begins to loom on the horizon are not the sketches of a psychologized medicine but rather those of a humanized psychiatry.
A doctor, however, who would still interpret his own role mainly as that of a technician would confess that he sees in his patient nothing more than a machine, instead of seeing the human being behind the disease!
A human being is not one thing among others; things determine each other, but man is ultimately self-determining. What he becomes - within the limits of endowment and environment - he has made out of himself. In the concentration camps, for example, in this living laboratory and on this testing ground, we watched and witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions.
Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the
Shema Yisrael on his lips.
44 有用 Ephemeroptera 2016-11-28
书前半部分讲集中营中的生活,但仍觉句子不够精炼,经常重复…所以读了又放下,放下再拿起来。后半部分更像拼凑,致使本书没有连贯完整性。该书最大的作用还是为了让读者了解集中营的生活,受到心灵的震撼,且书中生活与读者的现实生活产生强烈反差,读者看罢本书会产生暂时的幸福感:出门晒个太阳都是自由美好的。然而幸福感只能持续3分钟,像夏天烈日下的洒水车洒过的薄水,瞬间就蒸发了。于是我们又回到了虚无糟糕的现实生活中
15 有用 休谟 2013-08-20
一生中要看很多遍的好书
62 有用 成知默 2017-05-11
2017年已读048:#公认的高分好书,我却无感系列#吸引我读这本书的是作者的集中营幸存者身份及他对这段死里逃生经历的书写,如作者所说,第一部分集中营经历是他理论存在的明证,在这部分中,对那些无辜囚徒的心理反应与所遭遇的粗暴对待都是老生常谈,虽然我已看过不少有关集中营的书,我曾以为这些罪恶与苦难并不会因过多讲述而被稀释,我也承认作者所说我们应“自主选择如何应对不同处境的自由”,但为了服务于自己的理... 2017年已读048:#公认的高分好书,我却无感系列#吸引我读这本书的是作者的集中营幸存者身份及他对这段死里逃生经历的书写,如作者所说,第一部分集中营经历是他理论存在的明证,在这部分中,对那些无辜囚徒的心理反应与所遭遇的粗暴对待都是老生常谈,虽然我已看过不少有关集中营的书,我曾以为这些罪恶与苦难并不会因过多讲述而被稀释,我也承认作者所说我们应“自主选择如何应对不同处境的自由”,但为了服务于自己的理论,作者称那些集中营中的逝者:“他们不是把集中营的苦难看做对自身内在力量的考验,而是很不严肃地对待自己的生命,把生命轻易抛弃。他们更愿意闭上眼睛,生活在过去之中。对这些人来说,生命是无意义的”,实在有点轻浮。而第二部分的意义疗法、存在主义分析又太过简单,理论与案例都有些浮皮潦草,无法说服我。 (展开)
29 有用 阿mars 2016-04-05
整本书的要义就是尼采说的:知道为什么而活的人,便能生存。
28 有用 Loewe 2013-11-22
苦难本身毫无意义,但我们可以通过自身对苦难的反应赋予其意义。
0 有用 余有钱 2021-03-08
这本书后半部分涉及到相关理论的部分,个人认为意义不如前面集中营生活回忆的意义大。看完这本书之后,突然之间意识到,集中营,既可以是实体存在的,也就是分布在欧洲的几个旧址,也可以是精神上自己创造出来的,也就是我们常说的画地为牢。其实我们远比我们想象中的更自由。人生找到意义的方法:创造一个自己热爱的事业、通过爱、通过苦难。前两种比较好。书中有一句话,不要期待生活给你什么,而要去想想生活对自己的要求是什么... 这本书后半部分涉及到相关理论的部分,个人认为意义不如前面集中营生活回忆的意义大。看完这本书之后,突然之间意识到,集中营,既可以是实体存在的,也就是分布在欧洲的几个旧址,也可以是精神上自己创造出来的,也就是我们常说的画地为牢。其实我们远比我们想象中的更自由。人生找到意义的方法:创造一个自己热爱的事业、通过爱、通过苦难。前两种比较好。书中有一句话,不要期待生活给你什么,而要去想想生活对自己的要求是什么。转换思想,改变mindset,永远都有出路。 (展开)
0 有用 Rivensin 2021-03-08
想要自由就要承担责任,慢慢发现你生命的意义 我是真不适合搞心理学 读了下关于心理学的书 人都快傻了
0 有用 胡不归🌈 2021-03-08
整体语言和章节连缀一般,能感受到是本信手为之的普及读本,而非理论性专著;但出于其核心思想对大众尤其是战后及当代人群普遍的“存在之虚无”具有极高指导价值,故成就了经典;相对于弗洛伊德追求快乐和阿德勒追求优越,维克多追求意义显然更能回归人之所以为人的根本要义,也因而更具实践价值;生命的意义是一个永劫回归式的哲学命题,无论阶级时空境遇每一个人都一定以不同的形式有过思考,面对如此终极难题,维克多坦诚又踏实... 整体语言和章节连缀一般,能感受到是本信手为之的普及读本,而非理论性专著;但出于其核心思想对大众尤其是战后及当代人群普遍的“存在之虚无”具有极高指导价值,故成就了经典;相对于弗洛伊德追求快乐和阿德勒追求优越,维克多追求意义显然更能回归人之所以为人的根本要义,也因而更具实践价值;生命的意义是一个永劫回归式的哲学命题,无论阶级时空境遇每一个人都一定以不同的形式有过思考,面对如此终极难题,维克多坦诚又踏实,毫无弄虚之嫌,他承认意义的流动性和不同面向,同时把眼光放在未来和过去,尤其盛赞逝去岁月带给人无法剥夺的魅力;他指出实现自我是个伪命题,它只是超越自我的副产品,一语道破了大多数人苦苦追问意义这件事本身的荒谬;他还认为全然忘乎自我的爱可以达成永恒闪耀的价值,这实在于我心旌激荡;在自由之外,他还歌颂责任 (展开)
0 有用 一个人 2021-03-08
生命总是有意义的,对吧
0 有用 糟糕情书 2021-03-08
存在之虚无,生命之意义。