Fool the Mind, and the Brain May Follow

心靈安頓好 腦袋也不難搞

By Tom Brady

For inspirational gurus and self-help authors, the power of positive thinking is an article of faith. But earlier this summer, 21 people at a motivational speaker’s event in San Jose, California, suffered burns after walking over hot coals. The problem wasn’t that their belief that they could withstand the heat had wavered, Oliver Burkeman wrote in The Times.
對一些靈感大師及勵志作家而言，正面思考的力量是信念的產物。但今年夏初出席加州聖荷西一項勵志性演說家活動的21個人，在走過炙熱的煤炭時卻被燙傷。（英國衛報專欄記者）柏克曼在紐約時報寫道，問題並不在於他們自認為頂得住高溫的信念已經動搖。

“What if all this positivity is part of the problem?” Mr. Burkeman asked. “What if we’re trying too hard to think positive and might do better to reconsider our relationship to ‘negative’ emotions and situations?”
柏克曼問道，「如果這整套正面思考正是問題的一部分該怎麼辦？會不會我們正面思考過了頭，或許重新思考我們與『負面』情緒及情境之間的關係，反倒好些？」

Slogans meant to cheer people up (“I am a lovable person!”) can in fact have the opposite effect on people with low esteem and make them feel worse, Mr. Burkeman reports. Goal-setting can backfire for an organization. Visualizing a successful outcome can make some people less likely to achieve it.
柏克曼寫道，用來激勵大家的口號（例如：我是個可愛的人），對一些自我評價較差的人而言其實有反效果，會使他們覺得更糟。設定目標，可能對組織產生反效果。把成功的結果當成願景，可能會使一些人更不可能達成目標。

In medical situations, researchers have found that people are more susceptible to the power of suggestion. That placebos can have a positive effect on patients – relieving pain, lifting depression, combating infection – is a widely reported phenomenon. People get better because they expect to.
研究人員發現，在醫療情境中人們更容易受暗示作用影響。安慰劑對病人可能有正面效果，如減輕痛苦、緩解憂鬱、對抗感染等，這是已被普遍報導的現象。人們情況改善其實是因為他們有這樣的期望。

Expectations also have a downside. When patients anticipate that a pill has negative side effects, they can suffer them even if the pill is fake. It’s called the “nocebo” effect.
期望也有壞處。若病人預期藥丸會有負面效果，即使吞的並非真藥丸也會感覺不舒服。這稱為「反安慰劑」效應。

Many people quit medical trials even when they are receiving placebos because they experience side effects, The Times reported. In a study of subjects with and without lactose intolerance conducted by Italian gastroenterologists, subjects were asked to take lactose, though all were given glucose, which has no effect on the gut. Still, 44 percent of those with lactose intolerance and 26 percent without reported having stomach problems.
紐時報導，許多人在接受安慰劑治療期間因感受副作用而退出醫療實驗。義大利腸胃科醫生做了項實驗，受測者有乳糖不耐症及沒有此症者皆有，實驗中要求受測者吞下乳糖，但給的其實是對腸子不會起作用的葡萄糖，結果仍有44%有乳糖不耐症者及26%無乳糖不耐症者表示胃不舒服。

We can trick our bodies if we try hard enough. Or work out hard enough.
如果我們全力一試，或者健身運動做得夠認真，其實可以騙過自己的身體。

Diana Spechler found that Bikram yoga, practiced in a room heated to 37 degrees Celsius, helped alleviate a lifetime of anxiety and sleeplessness. She wrote in The Times about leaving her first few sessions in a blissful state.
女作家黛安娜．史貝奇勒發現，在攝氏37度的房間裡練熱瑜伽，緩解了跟了她一輩子的焦慮及失眠。她在「紐時」撰文，談到頭幾堂課就讓她非常快樂。

But Ms. Spechler’s “state of euphoria,” as her grandmother described it, was not destined to be permanent. She stuck close to her plan of 365 yoga classes in 365 days. Yet her medicine, Bikram yoga, started to wear off.
不過史貝奇勒的祖母所稱的這種「愉悅狀態」卻好景不長。她在365天裡排了365堂瑜伽課，而且幾乎堅持到底。但她的藥方，也就是熱瑜伽，效果卻開始遞減。

“As drugs tend to do over time, it stopped working,” Ms. Spechler wrote. The “euphoria” dissipated. “My anxiety would creep back an hour or two after class.” She resumed her ritual consumption of pills to sleep at night.
史貝奇勒寫道，「就像吃藥的效果會隨著時間減弱一樣，熱瑜伽也不再有效。」那種「愉悅」已經消失；「下課一、兩個小時後我又感到焦慮。」她又恢復每晚靠安眠藥入睡的習慣。

Waiting on a long line, or waiting for luggage at an airport baggage carousel, can make people anxious and unhappy, as executives at a Houston airport discovered several years ago. Complaints about long waits for bags persisted even after more handlers were assigned to shorten bag delivery time, Alex Stone wrote in The Times.
大排長龍或在機場轉盤邊等行李，可能使人焦慮且不快；休士頓機場主管幾年前發現這種情況。（美國廣播公司記者）史東在「紐時」撰文指出，即使加派搬運工來縮短行李送達的時間，乘客還是抱怨等得太久。

What worked in Houston was moving the baggage carousel far away from the arrival gates so passengers had to walk six times longer to get their bags. Complaints dropped to near zero.
休士頓機場的因應作法是將行李轉盤與入境閘門間的距離拉遠，如此乘客必須走比原來多6倍的路才能拿到行李。結果幾乎沒有乘客再抱怨了。

“The dominant cost of waiting is an emotional one: stress, boredom, that nagging sensation that one’s life is slipping away,” Mr. Stone wrote. “A better understanding of the psychology of waiting can help make those inevitable delays that inject themselves into our lives a touch more bearable.”
史東寫道：「等待的主要負擔是情緒性的：緊張、無聊，令人很不安地認為生命在不斷流逝。能夠更了解人們在等待時的心理，便能使生活中無可避免的延誤變得更能忍受。」

原文參照：?

2012-09-11聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 任中原譯 原文參見紐時週報二版下