關於孤獨的美文

　　“孤獨”似乎只是一個近現代的問題,隨著近代上帝世俗化與世界祛魅的過程而出現,並且在現代消費社會盛行的時代氾濫於全球。下面是小編帶來的關於孤獨的經典美文閱讀，歡迎閱讀!

　　關於孤獨的經典美文閱讀篇一

　　調查顯示揭祕人為什麼會感到孤獨

　　Nobody likes feeling lonely, and some recent research suggests that the ache of isolation isn'tonly a psychological problem; unwanted solitude impacts physical health, too. Lonelinessincreases a person's risk of mortality by 26 percent, an effect comparable to the health risksposed by obesity, according to a study published this spring.

　　沒有人喜歡孤獨的感覺。最近某調查顯示，孤獨造成的痛苦不僅是心理問題，不是出自本意所需的孤獨還會影響到身體健康。根據一項今年春季釋出的研究，孤獨會使一個人的死亡風險提高26%，這與過度肥胖造成的健康風險程度相當。

　　And because of this new evidence of the serious ramifications of loneliness, some researchersare investigating what it is, exactly, that makes lonely people stay lonely. In particular, couldsome behavior be at the root of their isolation?

　　由於新發現了這一孤獨導致的嚴重後果，一些研?a href='//' target='_blank'>咳嗽閉?謐攀盅芯烤嚀迨鞘裁炊?魘谷舜τ詮露樂?校?乇鶚牽?岵換嵊心承┬形?槍露賴母?礎?/p>

　　In a paper recently published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Franklin& Marshall College professor Megan L. Knowles led four experiments that demonstratedlonely people's tendency to choke when under social pressure. In one, Knowles and her teamtested the social skills of 86 undergraduates, showing them 24 faces on a computer screenand asking them to name the basic human emotion each face was displaying: anger, fear,happiness, or sadness. She told some of the students that she was testing their social skills,and that people who failed at this task tended to have difficulty forming and maintainingfriendships. But she framed the test differently for the rest of them, describing it as a this-is-all-theoretical kind of exercise.

　　在最近於《個性與社會心理學通報》發表的一篇論文中，富蘭克林與馬歇爾學院的教授梅根.L.諾爾斯指導了4個實驗，這些實驗顯示出，孤獨的人在社交壓力之下有不能正常運用社交技巧的傾向。在其中一個實驗中，諾爾斯和她的團隊對86名大學生的社交技巧進行了測試。她在電腦螢幕上給他們展示了24張人臉影象，並讓他們說出每一張臉表達的基本情緒：憤怒、恐懼、快樂或是悲傷。她告訴其中的一些學生，說她測試的是他們的社交技巧，而沒有通過測試的人很可能在友誼的建立和維繫上有困難。但是她對另外的學生卻有不同的說法，她說這完全是個理論性質的練習。

　　Before they started any of that, though, all the students completed surveys that measuredhow lonely they were. In the end, the lonelier students did worse than the non-lonely studentson the emotion-reading task — but only when they were told they were being tested on theirsocial skills. When the lonely were told they were just taking a general knowledge test, theyperformed better than the non-lonely. Previous research echoes these new results: Past studieshave suggested, for example, that the lonelier people are better at accurately reading facialexpressions and decoding tone of voice. As the theory goes, lonely people may be payingcloser attention to emotional cues precisely because of their ache to belong somewhere andform interpersonal connections, which results in technically superior social skills.

　　在所有的測試之前，所有的學生都完成了一份衡量他們孤獨程度的調查。結果，孤獨的學生在情感辨別測試上比不孤獨的學生做得要差，但這種情況只有在告訴他們這是個社交技巧測試時才會出現。當孤獨的人被告知他們只是在做常識測試時，他們比不孤獨的人表現得更好。更早以前的研究也得出過相似的結果：比如過去有研究表明，孤獨的人更善於準確識別面部表情，解讀說話者語氣中蘊含的資訊。這個理論認為，孤獨的人可能會更細緻地關注情感暗示，因為他們渴望得到歸屬感、建立起人與人之間的聯絡。確切意義上來講，這使得他們擁有了更優秀的社交技巧。

　　But like a baseball pitcher with a mean case of the yips or a nervous test-taker sitting downfor an exam, being hyperfocused on not screwing up can lead to over-thinking and second-guessing, which, of course, can end up causing the very screwup the person was so bent onavoiding. It's largely a matter of reducing that performance anxiety, in other words, andKnowles and her colleagues did manage to find one way to do this for their lonely studyparticipants, though, admittedly, it is maybe not exactly applicable outside of a lab. Theresearchers gave their volunteers an energy-drink-like beverage and told them that any jittersthey felt were owing to the caffeine they’d just consumed. In actuality, the beveragecontained no caffeine, but no matter — the study participants believed that it did. They thendid the emotion-reading test, just like in the first experiment. Compared to scores from thatfirst experiment, there was no discernible difference in scores for the non-lonely, but theresearchers did see improvement among the lonely participants — even when the task hadbeen framed as a social-skills test.

　　不過，就像因過度緊張而無法正常發揮的排球發球手或是在考場中緊張的考生一樣，總想著不把事情弄糟會使你對事態的進展顧慮重重，如此一來，結果必然還是會搞砸，儘管你已經努力避免把事情弄糟了。換句話說，問題大概還是在於降低對自我表現的焦慮，諾爾斯和她的同事也確實找到了方法幫助參與他們研究的孤獨者，雖然不可否認的是，這可能不適用於實驗室外的情況。研究人員讓志願者喝下一種看上去像能量飲料的液體，並跟他們說他們的緊張感都是他們剛剛吸收的咖啡因引起的。實際上那些飲料裡不含咖啡因，不過沒關係，志願者相信裡面有。然後他們做了情感識別測試，就像第一個實驗那樣。與第一個實驗的分數比起來，不孤獨的人的得分沒有明顯的變化，但研究者卻發現孤獨的志願者得分提高了，甚至在告訴他們這是個社交技能測試後也是如此。

　　It may be difficult to trick yourself into believing your nerves are from caffeine and not the factthat you really, really, really want to make a good impression in some social setting, but thereare other ways to change your own thinking about anxiety. One of my recent favorites is fromHarvard Business School's Alison Wood Brooks, who found that when she had people reframetheir nerves as excitement, theysubsequently performed better on some mildly terrifying task,like singing in public. At the very least, this current research presents a fairly new way to thinkabout lonely people. It's not that they need to brush up on the basics of social skills — thatthey've likely already got down. Instead, lonely people may need to focus more on getting outof their own heads, so they can actually use the skills they've got to form friendships and beginto find a way out of their isolation.

　　要欺騙自己去相信緊張感是咖啡因的作用而不是真的、真的、真的想在社交場合中留下好印象，這或許很難，但是我們有其他方法來改變我們對焦慮的看法。哈佛商學院的艾莉森·伍德·布魯克斯的研究是我最近的最愛之一，她讓人們把緊張重新界定為興奮，之後他們在完成一些稍微有些嚇人的任務時表現得更好了，比方說在公共場合唱歌。不管怎樣，當前的這項研究給我們展現了一個看待孤獨者的新方式。他們並不需要提高基本的社交技巧，他們大都已經掌握了。他們需要的是努力不讓自己胡思亂想，這樣他們就可以真正地用上自己已經擁有的社交技巧去建立友誼、走出孤獨。

　　關於孤獨的經典美文閱讀篇二

　　孤獨是一種病比肥胖更可怕

　　BLACKPOOL, England — The woman on the other end of the phone spoke lightheartedly ofspring and her 81st birthday the previous week. “Who did you celebrate with, Beryl?” askedAlison, whose job was to offer a kind ear.

　　英格蘭布萊克浦——一位女士在電話裡快活地聊著春暖花開，還有她上週剛度過的81歲生日。“是誰和你一起慶生的，貝柔?”艾利森問道;她的工作就是當個耐心的聽眾。

　　“No one, I …” And with that, Beryl’s cheer turned to despair.

　　“沒有人。我......”因為艾利森這句話，貝柔的情緒從快活轉為低落。

　　Her voice began to quaver as she acknowledged that she had been alone at home not just onher birthday, but for days and days. The telephone conversation was the first time she hadspoken in more than a week.

　　當貝柔承認自己不只生日那天獨自在家，還有好一段時間都是如此，說話的聲音開始顫抖。這通電話是她一個多星期以來首度與人交談。

　　About 10,000 similar calls come in weekly to an unassuming office building in this seaside townat the northwest reaches of England, which houses The Silver Line Helpline, a 24-hour callcenter for older adults seeking to fill a basic need: contact with other people.

　　在英格蘭西北區的這個海濱小鎮，每週都有大約1萬通類似的電話打進此地一棟不起眼的辦公大樓。它是SilverLine求助熱線的所在地。這是一個為老人服務的24小時熱線中心。這些老人家打電話來，是為了滿足生活的某種基本需求：與他人保持聯絡。

　　Loneliness, which Emily Dickinson described as “the Horror not to be surveyed,” is a quietdevastation. But in Britain, it is increasingly being viewed as something more: a serious publichealth issue deserving of public funds and national attention.

　　詩人艾米莉•狄金森Emily Dickinson把孤獨感描述為“不可丈量的恐怖”，那是一種悄無聲息的傷害。不過在英國，人們逐漸認為，它的危害甚至更嚴重：它是應該被嚴肅對待的公共衛生課題，值得公共資金的投入和舉國關注。

　　Working with local governments and the National Health Service, programs aimed at mitigatingloneliness have sprung up in dozens of cities and towns. Even fire brigades have been trainedto inspect homes not just for fire safety but for signs of social isolation.

　　與地方政府和國家醫療服務體系National Health Service合作、致力於減緩孤獨現象的計劃正在數十個城鎮興起。就連消防隊也受了相關訓練，除了檢視民宅的防火安全，他們也要注意屋主是否有與世隔絕的跡象。

　　“There’s been an explosion of public awareness here, from local authorities to the Departmentof Health to the media,” said Paul Cann, chief executive of Age UK Oxfordshire and a founderof The Campaign to End Loneliness, a five-year-old group based in London. “Loneliness has tobe everybody’s business.”

　　“從地方當局、衛生署到媒體，各界對這件事的關注在迅速提高，”保羅‧坎恩Paul Cann表示。他是老齡英國Age UK牛津郡分部的行政主管，也是有五年曆史的倫敦“終結孤獨”倡議行動The Campaign ot EndLoneliness的發起人。“每個人都該關心孤獨這件事。”

　　Researchers have found mounting evidence linking loneliness to physical illness and tofunctional and cognitive decline. As a predictor of early death, loneliness eclipses obesity. “The profound effects of loneliness on health and independence are a critical public healthproblem,” said Dr. Carla M. Perissinotto, a geriatrician at the University of California, SanFrancisco. “It is no longer medically or ethically acceptable to ignore older adults who feellonely and marginalized.”

　　學者已經發現，越來越多的證據顯示，孤獨與生理疾病還有行為與認知能力下降都有關聯。孤獨也比肥胖更可能預示人的早逝。“孤獨對個人健康與自主生活能力的深刻影響，是很重要的公共衛生問題，”加州大學舊金山分校的老齡醫學專家卡拉‧M‧佩裡西諾託Dr. Carla M. Perissinotto說。“不論從醫學或道德的眼光來看，我們都不能再忽略那些覺得自己孤單或不受重視的長者了。”

　　In Britain and the United States, roughly one in three people older than 65 live alone, and in theUnited States, half of those older than 85 live alone. Studies in both countries show theprevalence of loneliness among people older than 60 ranging from 10 percent to 46 percent.

　　在英國與美國，65歲以上的民眾大約每三人裡就有一人獨居，而美國年齡在85歲以上的人，有一半是獨居。兩國的研究都顯示，60歲以上者老境孤獨的比例在10%到46%之間。

　　While the public, private and volunteer sectors in Britain are mobilizing to address loneliness,researchers are deepening their understanding of its biological underpinnings. In a paperpublished earlier this year in the journal Cell, neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology identified a region of the brain they believe generates feelings of loneliness. Theregion, known as the dorsal raphe nucleus, or DRN, is best known for its link to depression.

　　就在英國的公共部門、私人機構、義工團體都動員起來對付孤獨的時候，研究人員也在更深入瞭解它的生物學基礎。在今年稍早發表於《細胞》Cell期刊的一篇報告裡，麻省理工學院Massachusetts Institute ofTechonology的神經科學家認為他們找到了人腦產生孤獨感的區域。這個叫做中縫背核dorsal raphenucleus, DRN的部位最為人所知的是它和憂鬱症的關聯。

　　Kay M. Tye and her colleagues found that when mice were housed together, dopamine neuronsin the DRN were relatively inactive. But after the mice were isolated for a short period, theactivity in those neurons surged when those mice were reunited with other mice.

　　戴琦Kay M. Tye與她的同事發現，實驗用小鼠住在一起的時候，鼠腦中縫背核裡的多巴胺神經元比較不活躍。不過老鼠被隔離一小段時間再放回鼠群裡的時候，這些神經元的活動會大幅增加。

　　“This is the first time we’ve found a cellular substrate for this experience,” said Tye, anassistant professor at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT and a seniorauthor of the paper. “And we saw the change after 24 hours of isolation.”

　　“這是我們第一次發現孤獨感的細胞學根源，”戴博士說。她是麻省理工學院皮考爾學習和記憶研究所PicowerInstitute for Learning and Memory助理教授，也是該篇報告的主要作者。“在小鼠隔離了24小時之後，我們開始看到這種變化。”

　　John T. Cacioppo, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago and director of theuniversity’s Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, has been studying loneliness since the1990s. He said loneliness is an aversive signal much like thirst, hunger or pain.

　　約翰•T•卡奇奧波John T. Cacioppo是芝加哥大學University of Chicago心理學教授，也是該校認知與社會神經科學中心Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience主任。他自20世紀90年代以來就一直在研究孤獨感。他說，孤獨感與口渴、飢餓、疼痛很相似，是一種反向訊號。

　　“Denying you feel lonely makes no more sense than denying you feel hunger,” he said. Yet thevery word “lonely” carries a negative connotation, Cacioppo said, signaling social weakness,or an inability to stand on one’s own.

　　卡奇奧波表示：“拒絕承認自己的孤獨感，就像拒絕承認自己餓了一樣，沒有意義。”不過他也說，“孤獨”這個字本身有負面涵義，意味著一個人不善社交或無法自立更生。

　　The unspoken stigma of loneliness is amply evident during calls to The Silver Line. Most peoplecall asking for advice on, say, roasting a turkey. Many call more than once a day. One womanrings every hour to ask the time. Only rarely will someone speak frankly about loneliness.

　　這種沒有被言說的汙名，從打給Silver Line的電話裡很能看得出來。大部分去電尋求建議的人，問的都是，比方說，“怎麼烤火雞”這種問題;有些人一天會打上好幾通。有位女性每小時都會打這條專線問時間。只有極少數人會坦誠地討論自己的孤單感受。

　　Yet the impulse to call in to services like The Silver Line is a healthy one, Cacioppo said.

　　不過卡奇奧波說，想給這類服務熱線打電話的衝動是健康的。

　　Sophie Andrews, chief executive of The Silver Line, said she was surprised by the explosion ofcalls shortly after the service began operating nearly three years ago. The Blackpool call centernow receives some 1,500 calls a day.

　　Silver Line的執行主管蘇菲‧安德魯斯Sophie Andrews表示，這條專線在近三年前開通後，很快就湧入大量電話，她很驚訝。如今他們在布萊克浦的中心每天接聽大約1500通電話。

　　Andrews said she was most concerned not about those who called The Silver Line, but thosewho were too depressed by their isolation to pick up the phone. “We need to raise awarenesswith the people who are the hardest to reach,” she said.

　　安德魯斯還說，她最擔心的不是那些打電話來的人，而是那些因為孤獨而過度抑鬱，以至於連電話也不想打的人。“對於最難接觸到的人群，我們需要引起更多的重視，”她說。

　　Cacioppo lauds efforts like The Silver Line, yet he warns that the problem of loneliness isnuanced and the solutions not as obvious as they might seem. That is, a call-in line can helpreduce feelings of loneliness temporarily, but is not likely to reduce levels of chronicloneliness.

　　卡奇奧波對Silver Line這類努力表示讚許，但他也警告，孤獨的問題還有很多細分，解決之道也不如表面看來那麼顯而易見。也就是說，電話專線能幫人暫時緩解孤獨的感覺，卻不太可能降低長期的孤獨感。

　　In his research, Cacioppo has shown that loneliness affects several key bodily functions, at leastin part through overstimulation of the body’s stress response. Chronic loneliness, his workhas shown, is associated with increased levels of cortisol, a major stress hormone, as well ashigher vascular resistance, which can raise blood pressure and decrease blood flow to vitalorgans.

　　卡奇奧波的研究顯示，孤獨感會影響許多身體重要功能，至少部分是因為人體應激反應被過度激發造成的。他的研究工作顯示，長期感覺孤獨與皮質醇濃度上升有關這是一種主要的應激荷爾蒙，也與較高的血管阻力有關;血管阻力能使血壓上升、減少流入主要器官的血液量。

　　Cacioppo’s research has also shown that the danger signals activated in the brain by lonelinessaffect the production of white blood cells; this can impair the immune system’s ability to fightinfections.

　　卡奇奧波的研究還顯示，腦部受孤獨感刺激所釋放出的警示訊號會影響白細胞的生成，而這有可能損及免疫系統對抗感染的能力。

　　It is only in the past several years that loneliness been examined through a medical, rather thanpsychological or sociological, lens. Perissinotto, the University of California, San Franciscogeriatrician, decided to study loneliness when she began to sense there were factors affectingher patients’ health that she was missing.

　　人們透過醫學而非心理學或社會學的角度研究孤獨感，不過是近幾年的事。前面提到的老齡醫學醫師佩裡西諾託決定要投入孤獨感的研究，是因為她開始覺得有些因素在影響她的病人的健康狀況，但她卻不知是什麼。

　　Although plenty of research into loneliness takes place in the United States, Britain remains wellahead in addressing the problem.

　　雖然有很多孤獨感的研究是在美國做的，不過在應對這個問題方面，英國還是領先許多。

　　“In the U.S., there isn’t much recognition in terms of public health initiatives or the averageperson recognizing that loneliness has to do with health,” said Julianne Holt-Lunstad, aprofessor of psychology at Brigham Young University, whose studies also link loneliness todeteriorating health.

　　“美國的公共衛生行動還不怎麼認可這個問題，一般人也不太瞭解孤獨感會影響健康，”楊百翰大學BrighamYoung University的心理學教授茱莉安‧浩特─朗斯泰德Julianne Holt- Lunstad說。她的研究也顯示出孤獨感與健康損害有關。

　　Age UK, an organization similar to AARP in the United States, oversees an array of programsaimed at decreasing loneliness and coordinates efforts with fire brigades to look for signs ofloneliness and isolation in the homes they enter.

　　老齡英國是一個與美國退休人員協會AARP相似的組織，他們監督一系列旨在減輕老人孤獨處境的專案。該組織也與消防隊合作，讓消防人員在上門檢查時，也注意屋主是否有孤獨或與世隔絕的跡象。

　　Another charity, Open Age, runs some 400 activities each week in Central London — sewingcircles, current events discussions, book clubs and exercise and computer classes, held atchurch halls, sport centers, housing projects — and its employees also visit people in theirhomes to try to get them out and about.

　　另一個慈善組織Open Age每週在倫敦市中心組織400多種活動：縫紉團體、時事討論會、閱讀俱樂部、體能鍛鍊、電腦班。活動舉辦地點則在教堂大廳、運動中心或社會住宅。該組織員工也會上門探視，想辦法讓老人出門走走。

　　“We try to work out what it is that’s preventing them from leaving the house,” said HelenLeech, the organization’s director.

　　“我們會去了解是什麼原因使他們不願出門，”Open Age的主任海倫‧利奇Helen Leech說。

　　Men and women differ greatly in how they grapple with loneliness. Seventy percent of the callsto The Silver Line are from women.

　　男女應付孤獨感的方式大不相同。打給Silver Line的有70%是女性。