We think of this as a new thing.

我們把這視為最近才出現的現象。

Selfie only made it into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013, when it quickly became word of the year.

2013 年牛津字典才收錄「自拍 (selfie)」這個字，該字迅速成為年度代表字。

But selfies are about as old as photography.

但自拍出現的年代和攝影術差不多。

The first was taken in 1839 by an American named Robert Cornelius.

第一張自拍是由一位叫 Robert Cornelius 的美國人在 1893 年所拍。

So why have we used photography, this miraculous invention, to take pictures of something we can see in our bathroom mirror every morning?

所以為何我們使用攝影術這不可思議的發明，來拍攝每天早晨浴室鏡子裡看到的東西？

Something odd is clearly going on.

肯定有什麼奇怪的事發生。

And who better to explain human oddities than Sigmund Freud?

還有誰比佛洛伊德更能解釋人類的奇妙之處？

Freud invented psychoanalysis and popularised many ideas like the ego, the unconscious, and talking to a therapist.

佛洛伊德創造了「心理分析」一說，並普及了許多像是「自我意識」、「無意識」，還有與心理醫師談話等的概念。

One of those ideas is narcissism, or excessive self-love.

其中一個概念是「自戀」，或稱為「對自我過度的愛」。

In a Greek myth, a young man called Narcissus sees his reflection in a pool and spends so long staring at his own beauty that he loses touch with the rest of the world.

希臘神話中，一位名叫納西瑟斯 (Narcissus) 的年輕男子看見自己水中的倒影，後來因沉溺自我的美貌而與世隔絕。

And eventually drowns trying to embrace his own image in the water.

最終因想擁抱自己的倒影而溺死。

Freud thought that a bit of self-love was a natural part of being human.

佛洛依德認為些微的「自愛」是人的本性。

But Freud also thought that self-love can turn into a psychological disorder, when someone loves himself to the exclusion of everyone and everything else.

但他一個人只愛自己時，「自愛」也會變成心理疾病。

And that's what we usually mean by narcissism.

這就是我們常說的「自戀」。

Psychologists have developed tests for measuring personality traits like narcissism.

心理學家發展了一套測試「自戀」等個人特質的測驗。

Here are some results.

以下是部分結果。

Narcissists do tend to be more active on social media.

自戀者較常使用社群網站。

And posting selfies is strongly related to narcissism, but only if you're a man.

貼出自拍照和自戀有強烈的關聯，但前提要是男的。

Women tend to be less narcissistic than men, even though women post more selfies.

即便女人秀出更多自拍照，女人還是比男人不自戀。

Perhaps more worryingly, narcissism is rising.

也許更令人擔心的是，自戀傾向逐年上升。

The psychologist Jean Twenge has shown that, over the past few decades, it's risen at roughly the same rate as obesity.

心理學家 Jean Twenge 顯示過去幾十年內，自戀傾向與肥胖率以差不多的速度增加。

Freud derived most of his insights from everyday life observations, so he would have been very interested in all this data.

佛洛伊德從日常觀察得出大部分的見解，所以他對這類的資料很感興趣。

He would have concluded that narcissism is only part of what's going on in the rise of selfie culture.

他會將「自戀」總結為自拍文化的其中一環。

Some people are posting selfies not because they're in love with themselves, but because they want other people to be in love with them.

有些人貼出自拍照不是因為自戀，而是為了讓別人愛上他們。

Freud would have seen that need for approval as neurotic or hysterical.

佛洛伊德會將這種「求認同」視為神經質的或歇斯底里的。

Freud began his career in the late 1800s, a much more sexually repressed time.

佛洛伊德於 19 世紀末期開始執業，當時是段性壓抑的時期。

Men and women were kept strictly separated.

男人和女人被完全隔離。

And they were taught to be ashamed of feeling... sexy.

且他們被教育成「性感是可恥的」。

Many of Freud's female patients in Viennese high society suffered from 'hysterical paralysis' - an inability to walk that had no physical cause.

許多佛洛伊德來自維也納上流社會的女病患，都深受「歇斯底里性痲痺」的困擾，即一種無生理原因卻不能走路的疾病。

Freud believed that these women were, without knowing it, stopping themselves from walking because they wanted attention.

他認為這些女人下意識阻止自己走路，為了吸引他人目光。

So, if we need attention so badly that we'll paralyse ourselves for it, why not post a few selfies? Isn't that better?

所以，如果我們非常需要注意力，就會麻痺自己、讓自己喪失活動力。那貼出自拍照不是更好嗎？

Well, Freud would find something unhealthy about selfies – not just because of what they say about the people taking them, but also because of what they do to the people seeing them.

佛洛伊德會找出自拍照背後不健康的真相-- 不僅是自拍者的問題，還有自拍對人們造成的影響。

Selfies show people's best moments, carefully curated and heavily stage-managed.

自拍照留下大家最好的畫面，一切都精挑細選、精心安排。

So we're increasingly surrounded by images of other people's apparently perfect lives and bodies.

因此，我們越來越被這些看似完美的生活、身材所包圍。

Recent studies show that this makes us feel more envy, inadequacy, isolation and insecurity.

最近的研究指出此現象讓我們羨慕、自感不夠格、與世隔絕，還有感到不安全。

Making us, in Freud's terms, more neurotic.

以佛洛伊德的術語來說，我們變得神經質。

Freud said, "the aim of psychoanalysis is to replace neurotic misery with ordinary human unhappiness".

他說：「心理分析的目標就是用一般人類的不快樂取代神經質的悲哀心理」。

So next time you reach for the camera, remember Narcissus and focus on your friends instead.

所以下次你想伸手拿相機時，想想納西瑟斯，然後要多關注自己的朋友。

You may not get as many likes, but you'll get a thumbs up from Freud.

如此一來，你可能得不到那麼多按讚數，但你會得到佛洛伊德的讚賞。