怎样从恐怖袭击的创痛中重获新生

Tales of the Super Survivors
怎样从恐怖袭击的创痛中重获新生

The age of terror is an age of shocks. Individuals, families and whole societies get torn apart by unexpected stabbings, shootings and bombings.

恐怖主义时代是充满震惊的时代。意料不到的持刀伤人、枪击及炸弹袭击事件令个人、家庭及整个社会心碎。

It’s horrible, of course, but over the past few years the findings of academic research into the effects of these traumas have shifted in a more positive direction. Human beings are more resilient than we’d earlier thought. Many people bounce back from hard knocks and experience surges of post-traumatic growth.

这当然很可怕，但在过去几年中，有关这些创伤带来的影响的学术研究，已经转向更加积极的方向。人类的复原能力比我们之前想象的要强得多。很多人从不幸中振作起来，获得显著的创伤后成长。

In the first place, post-traumatic stress disorder rates are lower than many of us imagine. According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only about 13 percent of the first responders on 9/11 had symptoms that would qualify as a stress disorder. Only about 13 percent of the people who saw the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in person experienced PTSD in the next six months. The best general rule for all of society seems to be that at least 75 percent of the people who experience a life-threatening or violent event emerge without a stress disorder.

首先，患创伤后应激障碍综合症(PTSD)的比率低于我们很多人的想象。美国疾病控制与预防中心(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)做的一项研究显示，9・11事件的急救人员中只有13%的人出现的症状算是应激障碍。大约13%亲眼目睹2001年9月11日发生的袭击事件的人，在接下来六个月患上PTSD。对于整个社会来说，最喜人的普遍规律似乎是，至少75%经历生命威胁或暴力事件的人没有出现应激障碍。

Even many of those who are unlucky enough to fall victim to the horrific pain of PTSD are able to recover and rebuild better lives. These are people you sometimes meet who have experienced the worst in life but still radiate love and joy. They get to live a second life and correct the mistakes they made before the earthquake shook everything loose.

甚至很多不幸遭受PTSD带来的极度痛苦的人，都能重新振作，重建更好的生活。你有时可能会遇到这些走过生活最低谷，但仍然传播爱和快乐的人。他们获得重生，改正了他们在动荡摧毁一切之前所犯的错误。

As Philip A. Fisher, a University of Oregon psychology professor, noted in an email, the big background factor that nurtures resilience is unconditional love. The people who survive and rebound from trauma frequently had an early caregiver who pumped unshakable love into them, and that built a rock of inner security they could stand on for the rest of their lives.

就像俄勒冈大学(University of Oregon)心理学教授菲利普・A・菲舍尔(Philip A. Fisher)在邮件中指出的那样，培养复原能力的重要背景因素是无条件的爱。挺过创伤并重新振作的人通常之前受到坚定不移的关爱，建立了强大的内在安全感，这种安全感可以支撑他们度过余生。

There are some foreground factors, too, traits super survivors tend to have that enable them to come back stronger then ever. These people are often deluded in good ways about their own abilities, but completely realistic about their situations. That is to say, they have positive illusions about their own talents, and an optimist’s faith in their own abilities to control the future. But they have no illusions about the world around them. They accept what they have lost quickly. They see problems clearly. They work hard. Work is the reliable cure for sorrow.

还有一些显而易见的因素――超级幸存者往往拥有能够让他们变得更加强大的特性。这些人对自己的能力有一种良性的自欺欺人，但面对自己的处境时非常现实。也就是说，他们对自己的才能有着积极的幻想，乐观地相信自己能够掌控未来。但他们对周围的世界不抱幻想。他们很快就能接受自己遭遇损失的现实。他们看问题看得很明白。他们努力工作。工作是一种可靠的治愈悲伤的途径。

Recovering from trauma is mainly an exercise in storytelling. As Richard Tedeschi, a psychology professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has pointed out, trauma is a shock that ruptures the central story that you thought was your life. The recurring patterns that make up life are disrupted. The sense of safety is lost. Having faced death, people in these circumstances are forced to confront the elemental questions of life.

走出创伤基本上是一个讲故事的过程。就像北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校(University of North Carolina at Charlotte)心理学教授理查德・泰代斯基(Richard Tedeschi)指出的那样，创伤打破了你原本想象的生活故事的主线。构成生活的复现规律被扰乱。丧失了安全感。曾经面临死亡的人被迫面对生活的基本问题。

But some people are able to write a new story. As Tedeschi writes, post-traumatic growth comes not from the event but from the struggle afterward to write a new story that imagines a life better than before. Researchers have found that people who thrive after a shock are able to tell clear, forward-looking stories about themselves, while those who don’t thrive get stuck ruminating darkly about the past.

但一些人能够写出新故事。就像泰代斯基写的那样，创伤后成长不是由事件本身带来的，而是之后努力书写新故事，想象更好生活的举动促成的。研究人员发现，在遭受冲击后获得成长的人能够清晰地描绘自己的未来，而那些没有成长的人深陷对过去的反思。

Book 1 is life before the event. Book 2 is the event that shattered the old story. But Book 3 is reintegration, a reframing new story that incorporates what happened and then points to a more virtuous and meaningful life than the one before.

第一本书就是事件发生前的生活。第二本书则是打破老故事的事件。但第三本书就是重新整合，重新构思故事的过程，这个新故事涉及过去发生的事情，然后描绘一种比过去更高尚、更有意义的生活。

These are intensely moral narratives that describe a life of higher purpose. Viktor Frankl survived the Holocaust and concluded that those who could best survive the camps were those who could satisfy their hunger for lives of meaning. Even if they were suffering, they could direct their attention toward those they loved and those they would serve in their future lives.

这些都是高度道德化的叙事，描述了具有更崇高目的的人生。维克多・弗兰克(Viktor Frankl)在犹太人大屠杀中幸存下来，这让他认定，在集中营中最容易生还的人，是那些能够确信自己的求生渴望的人。即使他们在承受苦难，他们也可以关注亲人，关注于未来的生活中能够为之奉献的人。

Frankl, who went on to become a professor of neurology and psychiatry, cited Nietzsche’s dictum that he who has a why to live for can endure almost any how. The stories super survivors tell have two big themes: optimism and altruism.

弗兰克后来成为了神经病学和精神病学教授，他借用尼采的名言说，知道为何而生的人，能够承受几乎任何境况。超级幸存者告诉我们的故事有两大主题：乐观和助人。

It’s interesting that this age of terrorism calls forth certain practical skills ― the ability to tell stories, the ability to philosophize and define a meaning to your life. Just as individuals need moral stories if they are going to recover, so probably do nations. France will most likely need a parable to make sense of what happened, just as the United States still has competing parables about the meaning of 9/11.

有趣的是，这个恐怖主义时代催生了一些实用技能：讲故事的能力，理性思考及定义生活意义的能力。就像个人想要重新振作时需要听一些励志故事一样，各个国家可能也是如此。法国可能需要通过一个寓言来理解发生的事情，就像美国至今仍有一系列竞争性的9・11事件寓言。

This is why foreign policies that pursue amoral realpolitik are always impractical. If a country can’t discern a moral purpose in its foreign policy, it will lack resilience. It will lack the capacity to bounce back from an attack. It will lack a satisfying narrative and lose the ability to thrive in terror’s wake.

这就是为什么那些追求与道德无关的现实政治的对外政策，总是不可行的。如果一个国家无法辨别对外政策的道德目的，这个国家将会缺乏复原能力，缺乏走出遭袭阴影的能力。这个国家将会缺乏令人满意的叙事，丧失在恐怖袭击后繁荣发展的能力。

The good news is there is no reason to be pessimistic during the war on terrorism. Individuals and societies are tough and resilient, and usually emerge from attacks better than before.

好消息是，我们没有理由对反恐战争持悲观态度。个人和社会都很坚强，都具有复原能力，通常会在遭到袭击后以更好的面貌示人。