Name: 過度思考的痛苦 — 阿蘭·德波頓 (The Pain of Overthinking - Alain de Botton)
Uploaded: 2026-02-06T10:35:41.000Z
Duration: 10 min 42 s

I'm interested in the temptation to intellectualize emotions.

我對智性化情緒的誘惑很感興趣。

You know, you were talking before, ask the sort of why beneath the why and getting below the neck, as it's known in embodiment.

你知道，你之前說的，追問「為什麼」背後的「為什麼」，深入到「頸部以下」，這在具身化中是這麼說的。

Who was that philosopher that talked about being a philosopher is like being a mouse with a huge oversized ear on its back.

是哪位哲學家說過，當哲學家就像一隻老鼠，背上長著一對巨大的耳朵。

You know, you have this one particular thing that you've grown to monstrous size.

你知道，你身上有這麼一個特別的東西，它已經長到了龐大尺寸。

And anybody that is smart can do the work, but

任何聰明人都能完成這項工作，但是

doing the work is just turning feelings into theories.

完成這項工作只是把感受變成理論。

And I wonder, I'm interested in this temptation of how to overcome intellectualizing emotions as opposed to actually sitting and feeling them.

我想知道，我對如何克服智性化情緒的誘惑很感興趣，而不是真正坐下來去感受它們。

Look, what's wrong with intellectualizing?

Intellectualizing gets a bad name because at some point it ceases to have an accurate relationship to reality.

智性化之所以名聲不好，是因為到某個時候，它就失去了與現實的準確關係。

So in other words, your theory has left behind, you know, the facts.

所以換句話說，你的理論已經拋棄了，你知道，事實。

Your map is no longer mapping the territory accurately.

你的地圖不再準確地描繪領土。

There's nothing wrong with having a map, but there's something very wrong with having a misguided map.

有一張地圖沒什麼問題，但有一張誤導的地圖就大有問題了。

And I think when we say intellectualizing is bad, it's when it gives us a rather rigid description of the territory which no longer sees the actual full complexity of the terrain it's aiming, it's purporting to represent.

我認為當我們說智性化不好時，是指它給了我們對領土相當僵化的描述，而這種描述再也看不到它聲稱要代表的地形實際的全部複雜性。

We need to constantly check our maps against the territory.

我們需要不斷地將我們的地圖對照領土。

In other words, we need to think, okay, I've got this nice neat theory.

換句話說，我們需要思考，好的，我有一個這個精確的理論。

Maybe I need to blow it up because it's liable to have grown a bit stale.

也許我需要把它拋開，因為它很可能已經有點陳舊了。

I need to, you know, I need to head out back into the world and assume I know nothing, blow up my theory in order to build a better one.

我需要，你知道的，我需要回到現實世界，假設我一無所知，推翻我的理論，以便建立一個更好的理論。

So it's not about abandoning, I think, you know, humans are naturally theory makers.

所以這不是關於放棄，我認為，你知道的，人類天生就是理論的製造者。

There's something wrong with clinging to outdated.

If you hold it too tightly, that's an issue.

如果你抓得太緊，那就有問題了。

I've got this visual in my mind the difference between a way marker, which is being planted to give you an idea of the terrain and a tether to which you are attached.

我腦中有一個畫面，區分路標和繩索的差異，路標是為了讓你對地形有個概念而設立的，而繩索則是讓你被綁住。

Oh, I can't move from this thing anymore.

喔，我再也無法離開這個東西了。

This made sense five years ago when I first left university, and

這在我五年前剛離開大學時很有道理，

that explained where I was at, and it gave the chaos in the world a sense of order.

而且那解釋了我當時的狀況，並讓世界的混亂變得有條理。

I understood where I was going and what was happening.

我知道自己要去哪裡，也知道發生了什麼事。

Oh, if that no longer has accurate explanatory depth, I need to come up with a new theory.

喔，如果那不再有準確的解釋深度，我就需要提出一個新理論。

You're telling me I have to start all over again.

I think we regularly have to start all over again.

And I think, you know, that old adage, Socrates was asked why he was so wise, and

我想，你知道，那句老話，蘇格拉底被問到為什麼這麼聰明，

he said that he was so wise because he knew that he wasn't wise.

他說他之所以這麼聰明，是因為他知道自己不聰明。

In other words, ignorance, a capacity to acknowledge one's ignorance is at the root cause of sophisticated thinking, that you should be returning to a kind of basic ignorance.

換句話說，無知，承認自己無知的能力是複雜思考的根本原因，你應該回到一種基本的無知狀態。

Remember the story of Picasso who went to an art school in old age, and

還記得畢卡索晚年去藝術學校的故事嗎？

he looks at some children scribbling and doing drawings, and

he said, you know, when I was their age, I could paint like Raphael, and

他說，你知道嗎，我小時候，畫畫的功力可以跟拉斐爾媲美，

now I'm learning again how to paint like them.

現在我又要重新學習像他們一樣畫畫。

That's really a story about giving up the old map and allowing oneself to be ignorant again.

這其實是一個關於放下舊地圖，重新允許自己無知的故事。

And I think that's a true gift we give to ourselves when we allow ourselves to say, you know what, I don't know very much at all.

我想，當我們允許自己說「你知道嗎，我其實什麼都不太懂」的時候，這真的是一份送給自己的禮物。

I mean, people often say to me, they must say this to you.

我意思是，人們經常對我說，他們一定也對你說過。

You know, people say to me, oh, you must know so much about, you know, love or death or this or that.

你知道，人們對我說，喔，你一定對愛情、死亡或這類事情懂很多。

You know, you spend all the time thinking.

你知道，你花了很多時間思考。

And I rush to tell them, I literally know anything.

我會趕快跟他們說，我真的什麼都不知道。

It's a genuine sense that, you know, with every passing day, I know less.

我意思是，隨著日子一天天過去，我反而知道得更少。

And, you know, it's not even wisdom, it's just comedic, really.

而且，你知道，這甚至稱不上是智慧，說實話，有點好笑。

隨著日子一天天過去，我反而知道得更少。

The other thing to consider there is that almost everyone's body of work is a thinly veiled autobiography.

另外一個要考慮的是，幾乎所有人的作品都是一本薄薄的自傳。

You are looking to the person who has put the most time into this.

你是在找花最多時間在這上面的人。

Why do you think I put the most time into this?

你為什麼覺得我花最多時間在這上面？

Because I see me as most deficient in precisely all of the different areas that I am focusing on.

因為我覺得自己在正在專注的各個領域都最為不足。

So someone who's, you know, providing a guide to goodness probably finds goodness really hard.

所以，你知道，一個提供良善指引的人，大概會覺得良善這件事本身很難。

Somebody who's really interested in wisdom is really in touch with the chaos in them and in the world.

一個對智慧非常感興趣的人，其實更能體會到自己內在和這個世界的混亂。

It's a compensatory activity and so be it.

這是一種補償性的活動，那就這樣吧。

So we should never look to, you know, our gurus to actually be.

所以我們絕對不應該期望，你知道，我們的導師們真的能夠。

You know, sometimes we go, oh, you know, I thought they'd be wise.

你知道，有時候我們會說，喔，你知道，我以為他們會很有智慧。

And then I, you know, I saw them cursing at the airport and said, you know, what a fool they are.

No, you know, they're so invested in maintaining a sort of adult poise.

Of course they're going to have a fragile hold on It.

然後我，你知道，我看到他們在機場罵人，然後說，你知道，他們真是個傻瓜。

I think I mentioned this to you last time, but

不，你知道，他們非常熱衷於維持一種成人的儀態。

I think it's one of the reasons why your work, in particular, Oliver Berkman, who wrote 4,000 Weeks, this very sanguine look at human nature.

當然，他們對它的掌握會很脆弱。

It's got a distinctively British quality to it, which I love.

它有種很鮮明的英式特質，我很喜歡。

This sort of doesn't get too big for its boots.

It's kind of got a Carry On Camping sort of signature to it.

它有種《Carry On Camping》那種風格。

But the problem with America is that it was started by people who thought you could build Jerusalem on this earth, that you literally could build a city on the hill here and there.

但美國的問題在於，它是由那些認為你可以在這片土地上建立耶路撒冷、你真的可以在這裡建立一座山丘上的城市的人所創立的。

Whereas, you know, European culture was a tragic culture which essentially saw thought of human beings as inherently flawed, the playthings of the gods and unable to master the show until maybe the next life, but

相反地，你知道，歐洲文化是一種悲劇文化，它基本上認為人類本質上有缺陷，是眾神的玩物，在下一輩子之前無法掌控局面，但

definitely not this one, which immediately creates a comedic modesty around the gap between your aspirations and your reality.

絕對不是這一輩子，這立刻在你抱負和現實之間的差距周圍產生了一種帶有喜劇色彩的謙遜。

And so, growing up in Britain, I mean, Britain doesn't do many things well, but

所以，在英國長大，我是說，英國有很多事情做得不好，但

one of the things it really does well is a kind of melancholy, dark humor.

它真正做得很好的一件事就是一種憂鬱、黑色幽默。

我說，這是 The Smiths 的發源地。

You know, these people are latching onto the fact that life is absurd, dark, and

你知道，這些人抓住了生命荒謬、黑暗的本質，

that the most sophisticated response is a kind of rich, somber, hilarious laughter.

而最成熟的回應，是一種豐富、嚴肅又爆笑的笑聲。

And, you know, the reason why America has changed the planet so radically is that it's made up of people who think that such a thing is possible and you don't have to wait till the next world.

而你知道，美國之所以能徹底改變世界，是因為它由相信這種事是可能的、而且你不用等到來世才能實現的人組成。

You do it right here and now with some tools, and

你現在就在這裡，用一些工具實現它，

然後你前往矽谷，就這樣出發了。

It's created, you know, wonders of the world.

它創造了，你知道，世界奇觀。

However, psychically, my goodness, the toll has been enormous, enormous, because it forces everybody in that society to measure themselves against an ideal which is so punishing.

然而，在心理層面上，我的天啊，付出的代價是巨大的，巨大的，因為它迫使社會中的每個人都以一個極其嚴苛的理想來衡量自己。

So, you know, the secret sorrows of the American heart is a volume without end.

所以，你知道，美國人心中的祕密悲傷，是一本無窮無盡的書。

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過度思考的痛苦 — 阿蘭·德波頓 (The Pain of Overthinking - Alain de Botton)

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