TED演讲 第1期:抑郁的狗 强迫症的猫(1)

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号：tingroom，领取免费英语资料大礼包。

He was a Bernese mountain dog, and my ex-husband and I adopted him, and about six months in, we realized that he was a mess.  他是伯尔尼兹山地犬，我的前夫和我收养了他，差不多六个月之后，我们发现他一团糟。

He had such paralyzing separation anxiety that we couldn't leave him alone.  他患有麻痹性分离焦躁症我们根本不能留他独处。。

Once, he jumped out of our third floor apartment.  有一次，他直接从我们公寓的三楼跳出去。

He ate fabric². He ate things, recyclables.  他吃布料，也吃回收物。

He hunted flies that didn't exist.  他捕捉不存在的苍蝇。

He suffered from hallucinations.  他深受幻觉困扰。

He was diagnosed with a canine³ compulsive disorder⁴ and that's really just the tip of the iceberg⁵.  他被诊断过为犬类强迫性障碍而这些还只是冰山一角而已。

But like with humans, sometimes it's six months in before you realize that the person that you love has some issues.  但是跟人类一样，有时候六个月之后你才发现你爱的那个人有一些毛病

And most of us do not take the person we're dating back to the bar where we met them or give them back to the friend that introduced us, or sign them back up on Match.com.  但大部分人不会把约会对象丢回我们刚认识的那个酒吧或者还给那位介绍我们认识的朋友又或者把他们重新注册回相亲网上。

We love them anyway, and we stick to it, and that is what I did with my dog.  不管怎样我们都爱他，而且坚持爱下去。我也这样对我的狗狗。

And I was a I'd studied biology.  我学过生物学。

I have a Ph.D. in history of science from MIT, and had you asked me 10 years ago if a dog I loved, or just dogs generally, had emotions, I would have said yes,  我是MIT的科学史博士。如果十年前你问我如果我爱的狗狗，或者狗这个群体有没有情绪，我会告诉你有。

but I'm not sure that I would have told you that they can also wind up with an anxiety disorder, a Prozac prescription⁶ and a therapist.  但我不确定是否会告诉你。他们也会患焦虑症、吃百忧解（一种治疗精神抑郁的药物）、看治疗师。

But then, I fell in love, and I realized that they can, and actually trying to help my own dog overcome his panic and his anxiety, it just changed my life.  但我坠入了爱河，然后发现他们有种种问题，而帮助我自己的狗狗克服他的恐慌和焦虑，也改变了我的生活。

It cracked open my world.  打开了我的世界。

And I spent the last seven years, actually, looking into this topic of mental illness in other animals.  我在过去的七年探究了其他动物的精神疾病。

Can they be mentally ill like people, and if so, what does it mean about us?  他们会像人一样患精神疾病吗？如果会，这对我们意味着什么？

And what I discovered is that I do believe they can suffer from mental illness, and actually looking and trying to identify mental illness in them often helps us be better friends to them and also can help us better understand ourselves.  然后我发现我相信他们会受精神疾病折磨，而且观看并试着辨认他们的精神疾病有助于我们成为更好的朋友也能更好地了解自己。

So let's talk about diagnosis⁷ for a minute.  让我们稍微聊聊诊断过程吧。

Many of us think that we can't know what another animal is thinking, and that is true,  很多人认为我们不可能知道另一个动物在想什么，的确如此，

but any of you in relationships a at least this is my case a just because you ask someone that you're with or your parent or your child how they feel doesn't mean that they can tell you.  但你们任何一个谈过恋爱的至少就我而言。仅仅问了在一起的伴侣、父母和孩子，他们感觉如何不代表他们能告诉你。

They may not have words to explain what it is that they're feeling, and they may not know. 也许他们不会用语言解释自己的感觉亦或他们真的不清楚。

It's actually a pretty recent phenomenon that we feel that we have to talk to someone to understand their emotional distress⁸.  事实上这是最近的一个现象。我们以为，想了解对方的情绪困扰就必须跟他们聊聊。

Before the early 20th century, physicians often diagnosed emotional distress in their patients just by observation.  在二十世纪早期之前，医师们经常仅仅靠观察就诊断他们的病人。

分享到：