Chapter 8: Persecution mania

第八章 被迫害妄想症

In its more extreme forms persecution mania is a recognised form of insanity. Some people imagine that others wish to kill them, or imprison them, or to do them some other grave injury. Often the wish to protect themselves against imaginary persecutors leads them into acts of violence which make it necessary to restrain their liberty. This, like many other forms of insanity, is only an exaggeration of a tendency not at all uncommon among people who count as normal. I do not propose to discuss the extreme forms, which are a matter for a psychiatrist. It is the milder forms that I wish to consider, because they are a very frequent cause of unhappiness, and because, not having gone so far as to produce definite insanity, they are still capable of being dealt with by the patient himself, provided he can be induced to diagnose his trouble rightly and to see that its origin lies within himself and not in the supposed hostility or unkindness of others.

被迫害妄想症的极端形式是一种公认的精神疾病。有些人会幻想其他人想要杀死他们，或者监禁他们，又或者对他们做其它的严重伤害。为此，他们常常想要保护自己，并对抗想象中的迫害者，这种愿望会导致他们的暴力行为，也因此，限制他们的自由变成必要的事情。

与许多其它形式的精神疾病一样，这只是对于普通人群中某些普遍倾向的夸大而已。我并不打算讨论其极端形式，那是精神科医生的事情。 我想要考察的是比较温和的形式，原因在于它是不幸福的一种常见的起因，同时，它也还没走到精神病的程度，只要能够引导患者正确地认知自己的问题，并看到问题的根源在于自己，而非想象中他人的敌意或不友善，那么，患者就可以自己来解决这个问题。

We are all familiar with the type of person, man or woman, who, according to his own account, is perpetually the victim of ingratitude, unkindness, and treachery. People of this kind are often extraordinarily plausible, and secure warm sympathy from those who have not known them long. There is, as a rule, nothing inherently improbable about each separate story that they relate. The kind of ill-treatment of which they complain does undoubtedly sometimes occur. What in the end rouses the hearer's suspicions is the multiplicity of villains whom it has been the sufferer's ill-fortune to meet with. In accordance with the doctrine of probability, different people living in a given society are likely in the course of their lives to meet with about the same amount of bad treatment. If one person in a given set receives, according to his own account, universal ill-treatment, the likelihood is that the cause lies in himself, and that he either imagines injuries from which in fact he has not suffered, or unconsciously behaves in such a way as to arouse uncontrollable irritation. Experienced people therefore become suspicious of those who by their own account are invariably ill-treated by the world; they tend, by their lack of sympathy, to confirm these unfortunate people in the view that everyone is against them. The trouble, in fact, is a difficult one to deal with, since it is inflamed alike by sympathy and by lack of sympathy. The person inclined to persecution mania, when he finds a hard-luck story believed, will embellish it until he reaches the frontier of credibility; when, on the other hand, he finds it disbelieved, he has merely another example of the peculiar hard-heartedness of mankind towards himself. The disease is one that can be dealt with by understanding, and this understanding must be conveyed to the patient if it is to serve its purpose. My purpose in this chapter is to suggest some general s by means of which each individual can detect in himself the elements of persecution mania (from which almost everybody suffers in a greater or less degree), and, having detected them, can eliminate them. This is an important part of the conquest of happiness, since it is quite impossible to be happy if we feel that everybody ill-treats us.

我们都很熟悉这种人（这与男女无关），按照他自己的描述，他总是成为别人忘恩负义、敌视态度以及背叛行为的牺牲品。这种人往往貌似非常可信，会令相识不久的人给予他温暖的同情。

一般来说，他所讲的每一个故事，单独来看都没什么不可信。他们诉说的那种恶意对待偶尔也确实可能会发生。而最终引起听者怀疑的是，他怎么这么倒霉，居然会碰到这么多各种各样的反派。按照概率论来说，生活在特定社会中的不同的人，在他们的生活中遇到倒霉事的几率应该是差不多的。

如果按照他自己的说法，在给定的这个人群的集合里受到了普遍的不公正待遇，那么原因很可能在于他自己而非别人。要么一切只是想像，实际上他并没有遭受侵害；要么就是他那些无意识的行为让别人忍不住发怒。因此，那些有经验的人会对那些自称总是受到这世界不公对待的人产生怀疑，而由于这种缺乏同情心的行为，更使这些不幸的人们坚信自己受到了不公正的待遇。

实际上，这个麻烦很难解决，因为无论是同情或不同情都会引发问题。有被迫害妄想症倾向的人，当他发现有人相信自己遭遇不幸的故事时，他就会添油加醋，把事情夸张到没法再夸张的地步；反之，如果他发现别人不信，他就又多了一个别人对他特别铁石心肠、冷酷无情的例证。唯有用理解才能应对这种疾病，同时，必须把这种理解转达给病人才能达到目的。

我撰写本章的目的是提出一些基本的反思，由此，每个人都能够自我检核一下，看看自己身上是否有被迫害妄想症的因素（其实几乎每个人身上都或多或少有点问题），而一旦检核完毕，我们就可以消除这个问题。这是走向幸福很重要的一部分，因为，如果我们觉得人人都在虐待我们，我们不可能幸福的。

One of the most universal forms of irrationality is the attitude taken by practically everybody towards malicious gossip. Very few people can resist saying malicious things about their acquaintances, and even on occasion about their friends; yet when people hear that anything has been said against themselves, they are filled with indignant amazement. It has apparently never occurred to them that, just as they gossip about everyone else, so everyone else gossips about them. This is a mild form of the attitude which, when exaggerated, leads on to persecution mania. We expect everybody else to feel towards us that tender love and that profound respect which we feel towards ourselves. It does not occur to us that we cannot expect others to think better of us than we think of them and the reason this does not occur to us is that our own merits are great and obvious, whereas those of others, if they exist at all, are only visible to a very charitable eye. When you hear that so-and-so has said something horrid about you, you remember the ninety-nine times when you have refrained from uttering the most just and well-deserved criticism of him, and forget the hundredth time when in an unguarded moment you have declared what you believe to be the truth about him. Is this the reward, you feel, for all your long forbearance? Yet from his point of view your conduct appears exactly what his appears to you; he knows nothing of the times when you have not spoken, he knows only of the hundredth time when you did speak. If we were all given by magic the power to read each other's thoughts I suppose the first effect would be that almost all friendships would be dissolved; the second effect, however, might be excellent, for a world without any friends would be felt to be intolerable, and we should learn to like each other without needing a veil of illusion to conceal from ourselves that we did not think each other absolutely perfect. We know that our friends have their faults, and yet are on the whole agreeable people whom we like. We find it, however, intolerable that they should have the same attitude towards us. We expect them to think that, unlike the rest of mankind, we have no faults. When we are compelled to admit that we have faults, we take this obvious fact far too seriously. Nobody should expect to be perfect, or be unduly troubled by the fact that he is not.

非理性最常见的形式之一就是，实际上几乎每个人都有长舌妇的倾向。很少有人能忍得住不说熟人的坏话，甚至是说朋友的坏话，但是反过来一旦听到人们说自己的坏话时却变得满肚子愤慨，惊怒交加。很显然，他们从未想过，就像自己在背后八卦别人一样，别人也会在背后八卦自己。

这是一种较轻微的形式，但如果更夸张点的话，就会导致被迫害妄想症。

我们希望其他人对待我们时都能像我们对待自己一样充满了温柔的爱恋和深深的尊重。我们从来没有想到过，我们不能指望别人对我们的评价比我们对他们的评价还要高。而我们之所以想不到这一点，是因为自己的优点在我们眼里巨大而醒目，而他人的优点，即使有的话，也只有一双宽厚而慈悲的眼睛才能看得到。

当你听到某某人在背后说你坏话的时候，你会记起有99次已经话到嘴边，但你都强忍着没有说出对他公平公正、合情合理的批评，但你却忘记在第100次的时候，在某个不经意的时刻，你说出了对他自以为真实的想法。你难道真的认为，这是对你长时间以来的忍耐的报酬吗？而从他的角度来看，你的行为与你眼中他的行为如出一辙。他并不知道你有99次都忍住没说什么，他只知道这第100次你的确八卦了。

如果赐予我们魔法的力量，让我们可以解读彼此的想法，我想，第一个影响就是几乎所有的友谊都会化为泡影；而无论如何，第二个影响可能会很棒，因为一个没有朋友的世界是我们无法容忍的，所以，我们应该会学着去喜欢彼此，而无需带上幻觉的面纱隐藏我们自己认为对方并非完美的事实。

我们知道我们的朋友都有自己的缺点，但总体上说都是我们喜欢的，令人愉快的人，然而，我们发现，我们无法忍受他们用同样的态度来对待我们。我们奢求在他们的心中，我们不像别人，我们是完美无瑕的人。当我们被迫承认自己并不完美时，我们把这一明显的事实看得过于严重。没有人应该期待自己是完美的，也没有必要因这一事实而过分烦恼。

Persecution mania is always rooted in a too exaggerated conception of our own merits. I am, we will say, a playwright; to every unbiased person it must be obvious that I am the most brilliant playwright of the age. Nevertheless, for some reason, my plays are seldom performed, and when they are, they are not successful. What is the explanation of this strange state of affairs? Obviously that managers, actors, and critics have combined against me for one reason or another. The reason, of course, is highly creditable to myself: I have refused to kow-tow to the great ones of the theatrical world; I have not flattered the critics; my plays contain home truths which are unbearable to those whom they hit. And so my transcendent merit languishes unrecognised.

被迫害妄想症的根源始终在于对自我价值的过分夸大。比如，我们会说：我是一个剧作家，对每一个毫无偏见的人来说，显而易见，我就是当今时代最杰出的剧作家。不过，由于某些原因，我的戏剧很少上演，即使上演了，也未能获得成功。

这种奇怪的现象该如何解释？很明显，那些经理们、演员们，以及吹毛求疵的剧评家们已经因为这样或那样的理由联合起来对付我！当然，这一理由对我来说是完全可信的：我拒绝向那些戏剧界 的大人物们卑躬屈膝；我从不阿谀奉承那些剧评家们；我的戏剧所包含的事实刺痛了那些无法承受真相的人。所以，我超尘拔俗的天资就这样被忽略了，无法得到承认。

Then there is the inventor who has never been able to get anyone to examine the merits of his invention; manufacturers are set in their ways and will not consider any innovation, while the few who are progressive keep inventors of their own, who succeed in warding off the intrusions of unauthorised genius; the learned societies, strangely enough, lose one's manuscripts or return them unread; individuals to whom one appeals are unaccountably unresponsive. How is such a state of affairs to be explained? Obviously there is a close corporation of men who wish to divide among themselves the plums to be obtained by means of invention; the man who does not belong to this close corporation will not be listened to.

还有些发明家，从没有人关注他的发明成果：制造商因循守旧，只知按自己的老方法组织生产，不考虑任何创新；少数几个比较开明的则拥有他们自己的发明家，那些尚未得到认可的天才们无门可入；而那些学会团体说来真奇怪，要么把人家的手稿给弄丢了，要么就是根本没阅读就原封不动地退还回去；另外那些收到恳求的个人则不加解释地毫无回复。

到底该怎么解释这种情况？很显然，有一些联系密切的团体，他们希望在自己内部分享由发明得来的利益，对于并不属于他们这个小团体的人则毫不关注。

Then there is the man who has a genuine grievance founded upon actual fact, but who generalises in the light of his experience and arrives at the conclusion that his own misfortune affords the key to the universe; he discovers, let us say, some scandal about the Secret Service which it is to the interest of the Government to keep dark. He can obtain hardly any publicity for his discovery, and the most apparently high-minded men refuse to lift a finger to remedy the evil which fills him with indignation. So far the facts are as he says they are. But his rebuffs have made such an impression upon him that he believes all powerful men to be occupied wholly and solely in covering up the crimes to which they owe their power. Cases of this kind are particularly obstinate, owing to the partial truth of their outlook; the thing that has touched them personally has made, as is natural, more impression upon them than the much larger number of matters of which they have had no direct experience. This gives them a wrong sense of proportion, and causes them to attach undue importance to facts which are perhaps exceptional rather than typical.

还有一种人，他们事实上的确承受了不公，但他们仅仅依据自己的经验进行分析就轻易得出结论：他自己的不幸遭遇正提供了一把了解宇宙所有真相的钥匙，那就是，比如说，他发现了因关系到政府利益而被封锁起来的有关政府秘密部门的丑闻。他几乎找不到任何宣传机构公布他的发现，并且那些表面上最高贵的人都不愿动一根手指来纠正令他心中充满愤怒的罪恶。

就目前来说，事实的确如他所说。但权利人士的漠不关心让他产生了这样的印象，那就是他相信所有的权力人士都在忙着一件事——遮掩他们利用手中权力所犯下的罪恶，而正是在这些罪恶的基础上，他们才得以拥有他们的权力。

这种情况确实很难解决，这是因为他们的观点中有部分的真实性。对于那些他曾亲自接触过的事情，比之他不曾直接经历过的，他自然会有更深刻的印象。这让他们分不清轻重，也使得他们过分关注一些偶然的事例，而忽略或排斥那些典型的事例。

Another not uncommon victim of persecution mania is a certain type of philanthropist who is always doing good to people against their will, and is amazed and horrified that they display no gratitude. Our motives in doing good are seldom as pure as we imagine them to be. Love of power is insidious; it has many disguises, and is often the source of the pleasure we derive from doing what we believe to be good to other people. Not infrequently, yet another element enters in. “Doing good” to people generally consists in depriving them of some pleasure: drink, or gambling, or idleness, or what not. In this case there is an element which is typical of much social morality, namely envy of those who are in a position to commit sins from which we have to abstain if we are to retain the respect of our friends. Those who vote, let us say, for law against cigarette smoking (such laws exist, or existed, in several American States) are obviously non-smokers to whom the pleasure which others derive from tobacco is a source of pain. If they expect those who were previously cigarette fiends to come in a deputation and thank them for emancipation from this odious vice, it is possible that they may be disappointed. They may then begin to reflect that they have given their lives for the public good, and that those who have most reason for thanking them for their beneficent activities appear to be the least aware of any occasion for gratitude.

另一种常见的被迫害妄想症的受害者是某种类型的慈善家，他总是做些违背了对方意愿，人家并不愿接受的善事，而在未能收获对方感恩之时又觉得迷惑而可怕。

我们行善的动机很少像我们想象的那么纯洁。权力之爱总是暗中为害，它有许多伪装形式，并且常常成为我们自以为对人行善时的快乐之源。

并不罕见的是，这里又掺杂了另一个因素。对他人“做善事”总体上意味着剥夺了他们的某些快乐，比如饮酒、赌博、偷懒等等。在这种情况下，就会有一种典型的社会道德因素，即嫉妒那些 可以犯错误的人，而我们如果想要保留朋友们的尊敬，则必须要远离这罪恶。

又比如说，那些投票支持禁烟（这类法律在美国的几个州存在或曾经存在过）的人显然是不抽烟的，对他们来说，别人从吸烟中得到的快乐恰恰是他们痛苦的来源。如果他们希望那些以前吸烟的人派代表来感谢他们帮助自己远离了这一恶习，那很可能他们会失望的。于是，他们可能开始这么想，他们已经把自己的生活都奉献给了公共利益，而那些最有理由对他们的善行表示感谢的人却好像对于感恩的理由知道的最少。

One used to find the same kind of attitude on the part of mistresses towards domestic servants whose morals they safe-guarded. But is these days the servant problem has become so acute that this form of kindness to maids has become less common.

人们过去常常在家庭主妇身上发现同样的情况，她们对家里的仆人的道德观念负有保护责任。但现在仆佣的问题变得非常尖锐，主妇们对女仆的这种善意行为已经变得很少见了。