2023年经济学人 完美主义的陷阱

（单词翻译）

    Culture

    文艺版块

    Book review

    书评

    The enemy of the good

    优秀之敌

    The Perfection Trap. By Thomas Curran.

    完美陷阱。托马斯·柯伦著。

    In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birth-Mark”, a chemist called Aylmer marries a young woman, Georgiana, whose sole imperfection is a red blemish¹ on her left cheek.

    在纳撒尼尔·霍桑的短篇小说《胎记》中，一位名叫艾尔默的化学家娶了一位名叫乔治安娜的年轻女子，她唯一的缺陷就是左脸颊上有一块红色斑点。

    He considers it a “fatal flaw”; she pleads with him to use his skills to remove it.

    艾尔默认为这是一个“致命的缺陷”，乔治安娜恳求他用他的化学能力祛除红斑。

    Stumbling on his journal, however, Georgiana is astonished to find it is a catalogue of scientific mishaps².

    然而，乔治亚娜偶然发现了艾尔默的日记，她惊讶地发现日记上记录的都是各种科学失败事件。

    Might his loathing³ of her birthmark stem from his professional disappointment?

    艾尔默对她胎记的厌恶难道是源于他在工作上的失意？

    At length Aylmer concocts⁴ a potion that has the desired effect—and promptly⁵ kills her.

    最后，艾尔默炮制了一种药水，这种药水达到了预期的效果，但也立即让乔治安娜丧命。

    Hawthorne’s 180-year-old tale illustrates⁶ the perils⁷ of perfectionism.

    霍桑的这篇180年前的故事说明了完美主义的危险。

    It is Thomas Curran’s starting-point for a study of what he calls a “hidden epidemic”.

    这也是托马斯·柯伦对他所说的“隐藏的流行病”的研究起点。

    He thinks the obsessive⁸ pursuit of ever higher standards, rather than propelling achievement, is mainly a scourge⁹.

    柯伦认为，痴迷于追求更高的标准，而不是推动成就，在很大程度上是一种祸害。

    A social psychologist at the London School of Economics, he describes himself as “a recovering perfectionist”.

    作为伦敦政治经济学院的社会心理学家，他将自己描述为“一个正在康复的完美主义者”。

    Drawing on both academic research and his own experiences of “deficit thinking”, he makes a vigorous case, albeit¹⁰ one occasionally marked by cliché (he sees his younger self as a “chin-stroking, cardigan-wearing intellectual”).

    根据学术研究和他自己的“缺陷思维”经历，他提出了有力的论据，尽管偶尔有俗套的地方(他认为自己年轻时是一个“摸着下巴、穿着针织开衫的知识分子”)。

    Mr Curran distinguishes between three sorts of perfectionism.

    柯伦区分了三种完美主义。

    The first, which looks inward, is the relentless¹¹ self-scolding of the workaholic or punctilious¹² student.

    第一种是向内的，是工作狂或刻苦学生的严厉自责。

    A second version, directed towards others, is commonly found in bosses who have unrealistic expectations of their staff and decry¹³ their supposed failings (he cites Steve Jobs as an example).

    第二种是指向他人的，通常出现在那些对员工抱有不切实际的期望，并强烈批评员工的错误的老板身上(他举了史蒂夫·乔布斯的例子)。

    The third and most troublesome kind is the form imputed¹⁴ to society: “an all-encompassing belief that everybody, at all times, expects us to be perfect”.

    第三种也是最麻烦的一种，是将完美主义归因于社会：“一种包含一切的信念，认为所有人在所有时候都期望我们是完美的”。

    Its victims tend to feel lonely; often they harm themselves and harbour thoughts of suicide.

    这种完美主义的受害者往往感到孤独，他们经常伤害自己，并怀有自杀的想法。

    Having noted¹⁵ the ways in which this pathology inflames¹⁶ vulnerabilities and erodes¹⁷ resilience, Mr Curran suggests some causes.

    注意到这种病态心理如何让人变得更脆弱性并削弱人们的韧性后，柯伦提出了导致完美主义的一些原因。

    These include a lack of job security, neurotic¹⁸ supervision¹⁹ by helicopter parents and the gaudy²⁰ blandishments of advertising²¹, which fuel consumption and anxiety.

    这些原因包括缺乏工作稳定感、直升机父母的神经质监督，以及加剧消费和焦虑的花言巧语的广告。

    “The very fabric²² of this economy”, he claims, “is woven from our discontent.”

    “这种经济的基本结构，”他称，“就是用我们的不满之情编织而成的。”

    Inevitably²³ he blames social media, which inundate²⁴ users with images of finely sculpted²⁵ bodies, flawless outfits²⁶, ambrosial²⁷ holidays and exquisite²⁸ weddings.

    不可避免地，柯伦将此归咎于社交媒体，社交媒体让用户淹没在雕塑般的优美身材、完美的穿搭、奢华优裕的度假和精致的婚礼图片之中。

    A less familiar culprit is Don Hamachek, an American psychologist, who in the 1970s coined the term “normal perfectionism”, thereby²⁹ legitimising morbid³⁰ self-criticism, says Mr Curran.

    柯伦还表示，另一个不太为人所知的罪魁祸首是美国心理学家唐·哈马切克，他在20世纪70年代创造了“正常的完美主义”一词，从而使病态的自我批评变得合理。

    He even reproaches Barack Obama for enjoining³¹ young people to learn from their mistakes.

    柯伦甚至指责贝拉克·奥巴马要求年轻人从错误中吸取教训。

    Instead, he says, failures should be “allowed to simply wash through us as a joyous³² reminder³³ of what it means to be a fallible human”.

    他说，相反，应该“让失败从生活中流过，愉快地提醒我们，人无完人意味着什么”。

    The author’s greatest odium, though, is directed at meritocracy.

    然而，作者最憎恨的是优绩主义。

    In this he draws on the thinking of Michael Sandel, a philosopher at Harvard.

    在这一点上，他借鉴了哈佛大学哲学家迈克尔·桑德尔的思想。

    Especially in “The Tyranny of Merit” (published in 2020), Professor Sandel has argued that using education as a giant sorting machine creates a toxic³⁴ obsession³⁵ with credentials³⁶, dividing society into winners and losers and depleting³⁷ the common good.

    尤其是在2020年出版的《精英的傲慢》一书中，桑德尔教授认为，把教育当作一台巨大的分类机器，会产生一种对成绩证书的有毒的痴迷，从而将社会分成赢家和输家，并让公共利益所剩无几。

    Like other critics of meritocracy, Mr Curran has a point—until you consider the alternatives.

    与其他批评优绩主义的人一样，柯伦的观点是有道理的--直到你考虑了其他选择。

    Daily life, in his view, now resembles an endless tribunal.

    在他看来，现在日常生活就像一个没有尽头的法庭。

    Young people suffer most from the constant scrutiny³⁸ of scores and rankings.

    持续不断的分数和排名方面的审视对年轻人影响最大。

    Decrying³⁹ a fixation on economic growth, he applauds countries, such as Bhutan and New Zealand, where decision-makers take account of citizens’ happiness.

    在谴责了对经济增长的偏执后，柯伦对不丹和新西兰等国家表示赞赏，这些国家的决策者会考虑公民的幸福感。

    Mr Curran’s preferred fix is a universal basic income, which he says would “extinguish the fire of perfectionism”.

    柯伦倾向的解决办法是全民基本收入，他认为这将“扑灭完美主义的火焰”。

    Whatever its economic merits, his argument errs⁴⁰ in treating perfectionism as a purely⁴¹ cultural phenomenon.

    无论其经济价值如何，他的观点都错误地将完美主义视为一种纯粹的文化现象。

    Might it not also be a disposition⁴² embedded⁴³ in the psyche⁴⁴?

    难道完美主义不也是一种根植于内在心理的倾向吗？

    Tellingly, his guidance—“Keep going. Do not yield”; “Keep practising that acceptance of fortune and fate”—is couched in the language of the perfectionist’s round-the-clock report card.

    很能说明问题的是，他的指导建议--“继续前进，不要屈服”“不断练习接受或好或坏的命运”--就是用完美主义者时刻不停的成绩报告单式的语言表述的。