What does a life of total dedication to the truth mean? It means, first of all, a life of continuous and never-ending stringent(严厉的) self-examination(自省). We know the world only through our relationship to it. Therefore, to know the world, we must not only examine it but we must simultaneously(同时地) examine the examiner(检查人). Psychiatrists are taught this in their training and know that it is impossible to realistically (实际地) understand the conflicts and transferences of their patients without understanding their own transferences and conflicts. For this reason psychiatrists are encouraged to receive their own psychotherapy(心理治疗) or psychoanalysis(心理分析) as part of their training and development. Unfortunately, not all psychiatrists respond to this encouragement. There are many, psychiatrists among them, who stringently examine the world but not so stringently examin themselves. They may be competent(有能力) individuals as the world judges competence(能力), but they are never wise(明智的). The life of wisdom must be a life of contemplation(冥想) combined(联合) with action. In the past in American culture, contemplation has not been held in high regard(很受重视地). In the 1950s people labeled Adlai Stevenson an “egghead” and believed he would not make a good President precisely because he was a contemplative(好沉思地) man, given to deep thinking and self-doubts. I have heard parents tell their adolescent children in all seriousness(严肃地), “You think too much.” What an absurdity(荒谬) this is, given the fact that it is our frontal lobes(大脑前庭), our capacity to think and to examine ourselves that most makes us human. Fortunately, such attitudes seem to be changing, and we are beginning to realize that the sources of danger to the world lie more within us than outside, and that the process of constant self-examination and contemplation is essential for ultimate survival. Still(还有), I am talking of relatively small numbers of people who are changing their attitudes. Examination of the world without is never as personally painful as examination of the world within, and it is certainly because of the pain involved in a life of genuine self-examination that the majority steer away from(避开) it. Yet when one is dedicated to the truth this pain seems relatively unimportant-and less and less important(and therefore less and less painful) the farther one proceeds on the path of self-examination.
A life of total dedication to the truth also means a life of willingness to be personally challenged. The only way that we can be certain that our map of reality is valid(有效地) is to expose(暴漏) it to the criticism(批评) and challenge(挑战) of other map-makers. Otherwise we live in a closed system-within a bell jar(钟罩), to use Sylvia Plath’s analogy(类比), rebreathing only our own fetid(有恶臭地) air, more and more subject to(受制于) delusion(妄想). Yet, because of the pain inherent in the process of revising our map of reality, we mostly seek to avoid or ward off(防止) any challenges to its validity(有效性). To our children we say, “Don’t talk back to me, I’m your parent.” To our spouse we give the message, “Let’s live and let live(让我们自己活也让别人活). If you criticize me, I’ll be a bitch to live with, and you’ll regret it.” To their families and the world the elderly give the message, “I am old and fragile(体弱地). If you challenge me I may die or at least you will bear upon your head the responsibility for making my last days on earth miserable.” To our employees we communicate, “If you are bold(冒失地) enough to challenge me at all, you had best do so very circumspectly(慎重地) indeed or else you’ll find yourself looking for another job.”
Not only individuals but also organizations are notorious(臭名昭著地) for protecting themselves against challenge. I was once directed by the Chief of Staff(参谋长) of the Army to prepare an analysis of the psychological causes of the My Lai(越南美莱村) atrocities(暴行) and their subsequent(后来的) cover-up(掩饰), with recommendations for research that might prevent such behavior in the future. The recommendations were disapproved(不统一) by the Army General Staff(陆军参谋部) on the basis that the research recommended could not be kept secret. “The existence of such research might open us up to further challenge. The President and the Army don’t need more challenges at this time,” I was told. Thus(所以) an analysis of the reasons for an incident(事件) that was covered up was itself covered up. Such behavior is not limited to the military or the White House; to the contrary, it is common to Congress(国会), other federal agencies(联邦机构), corporations(公司), even universities and charitable(慈善的) organizations-in short, all human organizations. Just as it is necessary for individuals to accept and even welcome challenges to their maps of reality and modi operandi(办事方法) if they are to grow in wisdom and effectiveness(有效性), so it is also necessary for organizations to accept and welcome challenges if they are to be viable(切实可行的) and progressive(进步的) institutions. This fact is being increasingly(越来越多的) recognized by such individuals as John Gardner of Common Cause, to whom it is clear that one of the most exciting and essential tasks facing our society in the next few decades(十年) is to build into the bureaucratic(官僚的) structure of our organizations and institutionalized(制度化的) openness(开放性) and responsiveness(响应性) to challenge which will replace the institutionalized resistance(抵制) currently typical. It is because they possess this courage, on the other hand, that many psychoanalytic patients, even at the outset of therapy and contrary to their stereotypical(刻板的) image, are people who are basically much stronger and healthier than average.
The tendency to avoid challenge is so omnipresent(无所不在的) in human beings that it can properly(恰当地) be considered a characteristic(特征) of human nature. But calling it natural does not mean it is essential(必不可少的) or beneficial(有益的) or unchangeable behavior. It is also natural to defecate(大便) in our pants and never brush our teeth. Yet we teach ourselves to do the unnatural until the unnatural becomes itself second nature. Indeed, all self-discipline might be defined as teaching ourselves to do the unnatural. Another characteristic of human nature-perhaps the one that make us most human-is our capacity to do the unnatural, to transcend(超过) and hence(因此) transform(改观) our own nature.
No act is more unnatural, and hence more human, than the act of entering psychotherapy. For by this act we deliberately(故意地) lay ourselves open to the deepest challenge from another human being, and even pay the other for the service of scrutiny(监视) and discernment(辨别能力). This laying open to challenge is one of the things that lying on the couch in the psychoanalyst’s office may symbolize(象征). Entering psychotherapy is an act of the greatest courage. The primary reason people do not undergo(经历) psychotherapy is not that they lack the money but that they lack the courage. This even includes many psychiatrists themselves, who somehow never quite seem to find it convenient to enter their own therapy despite the fact that they have even more reason than others to submit themselves to the discipline involved.
While undergoing psychotherapy is an ultimate form of being open to challenge, our more ordinary interactions daily offer us similar oppotunities to risk openness: at the water cooler(饮水机), in conference, on the golf couse, at the dinner table, in bed when the lights are out; with our colleagues, our supervisors and employees, with our mates, our friends, our lovers, with our parents and our children. A neatly(整洁地) coiffured(把头发做成某种式样的) woman who had been seeing me for some time began to comb her hair each time she got up from the couch at the end of a session. I commented on this new pattern to her behavior. “Several weeks ago my husband notices that my hairdo(发型) was flattened in the back after I returned from a session,” she explained, blushing(脸红的). “I didn’t tell him why. I’m afraid he might tease(取笑) me if he knows I lie on the couch in here.” So we had another issue to work on. The greatest value of psychotherapy derives(源于) from the extension of the discipline involved during the “fifty-minute hour” into the patient’s daily affairs and relationships. The healing(治愈) of the spirit has not been completed until openness to challenge becomes a way of life. This woman would not be wholly(完全地) well until she could be as forthright(直率的) with her husband as she was with me.
Of all those who come to a psychiatrist or psychotherapist very few are initially looking on a conscious level for challenge or an education in discipline. Most are simply seeking “relief.” When they realize they are going to be challenged as well as supported, many flee(逃跑) and others are tempted to flee. Teaching them that the only real relief will come through(经历) challenge and discipline is a delicate(易碎品), often lengthy and frequently unsuccessful task. We speak, therefore, of “seducing” patients into psychotherapy. And we may say of some patients whom we have been seeking for a year or more, “They have not really entered therapy yet.”
Openness in psychotherapy is particularly encouraged(or demanded, depending upon your point of vew) by the technique of “free association(自由联想).” When this technique is used the patient is told: “Put into words whatever comes into your mind, no matter how seemingly(看似) insignificant(微不足道的) or embarrassing(令人尴尬的) or painful or meaningless. If there is more than one thing in your mind at the same time, then you are to choose to speak that thing about which you are most reluctant(不情愿的) to speak.” It’s easier said than done. Nonetheless(然而), those who work at it conscientiously(良心上地) usually make swift(迅速的) progress. But some are so resistant(抵制的) to challenge that they simply pretend to free-associate. They talk volubly(口若悬河地) enough about this or that, but they leave out the crucial(至关重要地) details. A woman may speak for an hour unpleasant childhood experiences but neglect to mention that her husband had confronted her in the morning with the fact that she had overdrawn(透支) their bank account by a thousand dollars. Such patients attempt to transform(变换) the psychotherapeutic hour into a kind of press conference(记者招待会). At best(充其量) they are wasting time in their effort to avoid challenge, and usually they are indulging(沉迷) in a subtle form of lying.
For individuals and organizations to be open to challenge, it is necessary that their maps of reality be truly open for inspection(审查) by the public. More than press conferences are required. The third thing that a life of total dedication to the truth means, therefore, is a life of total honesty. It means a continuous and never-ending process of self-monitoring to assure that our communications-not only the words that we say but also the way we say them-invariably(始终如一地) reflect(反映) as accurately(准确地) as humanly possible(尽人力所能地) the truth or reality as we know it.
Such honesty does not come painlessly. The reason people lie is to avoid the pain of challenge and its consequences. President Nixon’s lying about Watergate was no more sophisticated or different in kind from that of a four-year-old who lies to his or her mother about how the lamp happened to fall off the table and get broken. Insofar(在这个程度上) as the nature of the challenge is legitimate(and it usually is), lying is an attempt to circumvent(避免) legitimate suffering and hence is productive of mental illness.
The concept of circumvention(规避) raises the issue of “shortcutting(简化).” Whenever we attempt to ciucumvent an obstacle, we are looking for a path to our goal which will be easier and therefore quicker: a shortcut. Believing that the growth of the human spirit is the end of human existence, I am obviously dedicated(致力于) to the notion(概念) or progress(进步). It is right and proper that as human begins we should grow and progress as rapidly as possible. It is therefore right and proper that we should avail(有益) ourselves of any legitimate shortcut to personal growth. The key word, however, is “legitimate.” Human begings have almost as much of a tendency to ignore legitimate shortcusts as they do to search out illegitimate ones. It is, for instance, a legitimate shortcut to study a synopsis(摘要) of a book instead of reading the original book in its entirety in preparation for an examination for a degree. If the synopsis is a good one, and the material is absorbed, the essential knowledge can be obtained in a manner that saves considerable(相当大的) time and effort. Cheating, however, is not a legitimate shortcut. It may save even greater amounts of time and, if successfully executed, may gain the cheater a passing mark on the exam and the coveted(梦寐以求的) degree. But the essential knowledge has not been obtained. Therefore the degree is a lie, a misrepresentation(歪曲). Insofar(在这个程度上) as the degree becomes a basis for life, the cheater’s life becomes a lie and misrepresentation and is often devoted(致力于) to protecting and preserving(保留) the lie.
Genuine psychotherapy is a legitimate shortcut to personal growth which is often ignored. One of the most frequent rationalizations(合理化) for ignoring it is to question its legitimacy(合法性) by saying, “I’m afraid that psychotherapy would get to be a crutch(拐杖). I don’t want to become dependent on a crutch.” But this is usually a cover-up for more significant(重大的) fears. The use of psychotherapy is no more a crutch than the use of hammer and nails to build a house. It is possible to build a house without hammer and nails, but the process is generally not efficient or desirable(可取的). Few carpenters will despair(绝望) of their dependency on hammer and nails. Simlarly, it is possible to achieve personal growth without employing(利用) psychotherapy, but often the task is unnecessarily tedious(单调乏味的), lengthy and difficult. It generally makes sense to utilize(利用) available tools as a shortcut.
On the other hand, psychotherapy may be sought as an illegitimate shortcut. This most commonly occurs in certain cases of parents seeking psychotherapy for their children. They want their children to change in some way: stop using drugs, stop having temper tantrums(发怒), stop getting bad grades, and so on. Some parents have exhausted(耗尽) their own resourcefulness(足智多谋) in trying to help their children and come to the psychotherapist with a genuine willingness to work on the problem. Others as often as not(往往) come with the overt(公开的) knowledge of the cause of their child’s problem, hoping that the psychiatrist will be able to do some magical something to change the child without having to change the basic cause of the problem. For instance, some parents will openly say, “We know that we have a problem in our marriage, and that this likely has something to do with our son’s problem. Nonetheless(反而), we do not want our marriage tampered(干扰) with; we do not want you to do therapy with us; we want you just to work with our son, if possible, to help him be happier.” Others are less open. They will come professing(公开宣称) a willingness to do anything that’s necessary, but when it is explained to them that their child’s symptoms are an expression of his resentment(怨恨) toward their whole life style, which leaves no real room for his nurture(培育), they will say, “It is ridiculous to think that we should turn ourselves inside out for him,” and they will depart to look for another psychiatrist, one who might offer them a painless shortcut. Farther down the pike they will likely(可能地) tell their friends and themselves, “We have done everything possible for our boy; we have even gone to four separate psychiatrists with him, but nothing has helped.”
We lie, of course, not only to others but also to ourselves. The challenges to our adjustment-our maps-from our own consciences(良心) and our own realistic(实际地) perceptions(理解) may be every bit as legitimate and painful as any challenge from the public. Of the myriad(无数的) likes that people often tell themselves, two of the most common, potent(强大地) and destructive are “We really love our children” and “Our parents really loved us.” It may be that our parents did love us and we do love our children but when it is not the case(当它并非如此), people often go to extraordinary lengths to avoid the realization(领悟). I frequently refer to psychotherapy as the “truth game” or the “honesty game” because its business is among other things(除了别的之外) to help patients confront such lies: One of the roots of mental illness is invariably(始终如一地) an interlocking(紧密连接的) system of lies we have been told and lies we have told ourselves. These roots can be uncovered(揭露) and excised(除去) only in an atmosphere of utter(彻底的) honesty. To create this atmosphere it is essential for therapists to bring to their realtionships with patients a total capacity for openness and truthfulness(真诚). How can a patient be expected to endure(忍受) the pain of confronting reality unless we bear the same pain? We can lead only insofar as we go before.
完全忠于事实的生活意味着什么的？
真正的心理学是个人成长的合理的快捷方式。