Name: 你是虐待狂還是受虐狂？ (Are you a Sadist or a Masochist - and Why?)
Uploaded: 2025-07-29T17:58:45.000Z
Duration: 3 min 13 s

Two of the strangest but most powerful concepts in psychology are called variously sadism and masochism.

心理學中有兩個最奇怪但最強大的概念，分別被稱為虐待狂和受虐狂。

By sadism is understood an enjoyment in causing other people suffering, and by masochism an enjoyment in receiving ill-treatment from others.

所謂虐待狂，是指喜歡給他人帶來痛苦；所謂受虐狂，是指喜歡接受他人的虐待。

Though commonly associated with sexual scenarios, these drives operate in all areas of life, at the office or in the schoolyard as much as in the bedroom or the dungeon.

雖然這些驅動力通常與性場景有關，但它們卻存在於生活的各個領域，辦公室、校園、臥室或地牢都有它們的身影。

Why do we seem to delight in inflicting suffering or, even more strangely, take satisfaction in enduring it?

為什麼我們似乎樂於造成痛苦，或者更奇怪的是，我們在忍受痛苦中得到滿足？

The best way to understand the phenomena is to view them as attempts to deal with an earlier, intolerable experience of fear, cruelty or unkindness.

理解這些現象的最佳方法是將其視為一種嘗試，以應對之前無法忍受的恐懼、殘忍或不友善的經歷。

Before anyone winds up either a reflection of the mind's concerted attempts to find a way out of a naked encounter with pain.

在任何人結束自己的生命之前，都是心靈一致試圖從赤裸裸的痛苦遭遇中找到出路的反映。

Masochists and sadists are both trying to ensure that they will survive what once felt like it might annihilate them.

受虐狂和虐待狂都在努力確保自己能夠從曾經覺得可能會毀滅自己的事情中倖存下來。

The sadist hits on the more straightforward move.

Having received cruelty, they conclude that the best way to escape its shadow is to be cruel to somebody else.

在受到殘酷對待之後，他們得出結論，要想擺脫殘酷的陰影，最好的辦法就是對別人殘忍。

The former terrified child becomes a terrifying adult.

昔日惶恐不安的孩子變成了惶恐不安的成年人。

Implicitly, the sadist believes that there are only two roles available, victim or perpetrator, and that their best chances of never again ending up as the former is to ensure that they will always be the latter.

隱含的意思是，施虐者認為只有兩種角色可供選擇：受害者或施虐者，而他們再也不會成為前者的最佳機會就是確保自己永遠是後者。

Masochists have, like sadists, also been the victims of cruelty.

受虐狂和虐待狂一樣，也是殘忍行為的受害者。

Like sadists, they are also in flight from defenselessness.

與虐待狂一樣，他們也是在逃避無助。

But their method of adaptation is more roundabout.

A sense of weakness, real or imagined, holds them back from attempts to persecute other people.

真實的或想象中的軟弱感使他們不敢試圖迫害他人。

And yet they still need some psychological way of alleviating the memory of suffering.

然而，他們仍然需要某種心理方法來減輕痛苦的記憶。

And so they hit upon what could almost be labelled an ingenious idea.

於是，他們想到了一個幾乎可以被稱為巧妙的主意。

They decide that they will henceforth choose suffering rather than having it forced upon them.

他們決定從此選擇受苦，而不是被迫受苦。

They opt to turn a necessity into something akin to a choice.

他們選擇把必需品變成類似選擇的東西。

Once they had no option but to be bullied by their family of birth, now they go out in active search of mean-minded partners whom they can unconsciously tell will deny them tenderness and care.

曾經，他們只能被出生的家庭欺負，而現在，他們會主動去尋找心胸狹窄的伴侶，因為他們不自覺地知道，這些伴侶會拒絕給予他們溫柔和關懷。

Once they were told by others that were a failure, now they ruin their own chances before anyone else has the opportunity to do it for them.

曾經別人告訴他們是個失敗者，現在他們在別人有機會為他們做到這一點之前就毀了自己的機會。

To liberate ourselves, we need to find our way back to the pain that lies behind our behaviours.

為了解放自己，我們需要找到回到我們行為背後的痛苦的方法。

And then we should do something that we have until now avoided.

然後，我們應該做一些迄今為止我們一直迴避的事情。

We should cry for what we have had to not ask anyone else, it might be a stranger or as regrettably ourselves, to suffer any further.

我們應該為自己的遭遇痛哭流涕，不要再讓其他人（可能是陌生人，也可能是我們自己）遭受任何痛苦。