经济学人:全球自杀率下降的背后(1)

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Suicide 自杀

Staying alive 活着

Why suicide is falling around the world, and how to bring the numbers down further still 为何世界各地自杀率都有下降？如何进一步降低自杀率？

“You know,” says a trader in “Margin Call”, a film about the crash of 2008, as he stands high on a building above Wall Street, “the feeling that people experience when they stand on the edge like this isn’t the fear of falling—it’s the fear that they might jump.” “你知道吗，当人们像这样站在边缘时所体验到的感觉并不是害怕摔倒，而是害怕自己可能会跳下去。” 讲述2018年经济崩盘的电影《商海通牒》里一位交易员站在华尔街高楼上说。

Suicide fascinates us. 自杀让我们着迷。

It is at once appalling¹ and yet, in the darkest places in our minds, appealing. 它既令人震惊，但在我们头脑中最黑暗的地方，却很有吸引力。

It is the most damaging sort of death. 这是最具破坏性的一种死亡。

A child’s suicide is a parent’s worst nightmare, and a parent’s marks their children for life. 孩子的自杀是父母最可怕的噩梦，而父母的自杀也会伴随孩子的一生。

It is a manifestation² not just of individual anguish³ but also of a collective failure: if society is too painful to live in, perhaps we are all culpable⁴. 它不仅是个人痛苦的表现，而且是集体失败的表现：如果社会让生活很痛苦，也许我们都有责任。

The suicide rate in America is up by 18% since 2000. 自2000年以来，美国的自杀率上升了18%。

This is not merely a tragedy; it matters politically, too. 这不仅仅是一场悲剧；在政治上也有很大影响。

The rise is largely among white, middle-aged⁵, poorly educated men in areas that were left behind by booms and crushed by busts⁶. 自杀主要发生在教育程度低下的白人中年男性，他们身处的地区在繁荣时期受到遗忘，在萧条时期却遭到碾压。

Their deaths are a symptom of troubles to which some see President Donald Trump⁷ as the answer. 其死亡预示着某些问题，一些人将美国总统唐纳德·特朗普视为问题根源。

Those troubles should not be ignored. 这些问题不应被忽视。

Nonetheless, beyond America’s gloomy trend is a more optimistic story: that at a global level, suicide is down by 29% since 2000. 尽管如此，在美国黯淡的趋势之外，还有一个更为乐观的故事：自2000年以来，全球自杀率下降了29%。

As a result, 2.8m lives have been saved in that time—three times as many as have been killed in battle. 结果同时，有280万人获救——是在战争中丧生人数的三倍。

There is no one reason. 原因不尽相同。

It is happening at different rates among different groups in different places. 在不同地区、不同群体中，这种情况以不同速度发生。

But the decline is particularly notable among three sets of people. 但在三类人群中，这种下降尤为明显。

One is young women in China and India. 一类是中国和印度的年轻女性。

In most of the world, older people kill themselves more often than the young, and men more than women. 在世界大多数地方，老年人自杀比年轻人多，而男性自杀比女性多。

But in China and India, young women have been unusually prone⁸ to suicide. 但在中国和印度，年轻女性的自杀倾向异乎寻常。

That is decreasingly the case. 这种情况正在逐渐减少。

Another group is middle-aged men in Russia. 另一个群体是俄罗斯的中年男性。

After the collapse⁹ of the Soviet¹⁰ Union, alcoholism and suicide rocketed among them. 苏联解体后，酗酒和自杀在他们中间激增。

Both have now receded¹¹. 现在两者都已衰退。

A third category is old people all around the world. 第三类是世界各地的老年人。

The suicide rate among the elderly remains¹², on average, higher than among the rest of the population, 老年人平均自杀率高于其他年龄段的人。

but has also fallen faster since 2000 than among other groups. 但自2000年以来，这一比例的下降速度也快于其他群体。

 

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