The holiday season poses a psychological conundrum. Its defining sentiment, of course, is joy─yet the strenuous effort to be joyous seems to make many of us miserable. It's hard to be happy in overcrowded airport lounges or while you're trying to stay civil for days on end with relatives who stretch your patience.
假日季给人提出了一道心理学难题，这个时候最典型的心情当然是快乐──然而为得到快乐而付出的艰辛似乎让我们很多人痛苦不堪。无论是身处人满为患的机场候机大厅，还是客客气气地和那些考验你耐心的亲戚们连续相处数日，你都很难高兴起来。
So to cope with the holidays, magazines and others are advising us to 'think positive'─the same advice, in other words, that Norman Vincent Peale, author of 'The Power of Positive Thinking, ' was dispensing six decades ago. (During holidays, Peale once suggested, you should make 'a deliberate effort to speak hopefully about everything.') The result all too often mirrors the famously annoying parlor game about trying not to think of a white bear: The harder you try, the more you think about one.
于是杂志及其它媒体都在建议我们要“积极思考”才能应付节假日──《积极思考的力量》(The Power of Positive Thinking)一书的作者诺曼•文森特•皮尔(Norman Vincent Peale)在60年前也提出过相同的建议。（皮尔曾经建议，在节假日期间，你应该“刻意用满怀希望的态度去谈论一切”。）结果却频繁地印证了那个出名烦人的尽量不去想白熊的室内游戏：你越是努力不去想一件事，到头来你却想得越多。
Variations of Peale's positive philosophy run deep in American culture, not just in how we handle holidays and other social situations but in business, politics and beyond. Yet studies suggest that peppy affirmations designed to lift the user's mood through repetition and visualizing future success often achieve the opposite of their intended effect.
皮尔的积极思考哲学以各种形式深入到了美国文化之中，不光是我们如何应付节假日和其它社交场合的问题，在商业、政治及更多领域也都产生了影响。然而研究表明，通过反复重复人为设计的细小肯定行为并想象未来获得成功的方式来提升人的情绪，接过却往往是事与愿违。
Fortunately, both ancient philosophy and contemporary psychology point to an alternative: a counterintuitive approach that might be termed 'the negative path to happiness.' This approach helps to explain some puzzles, such as the fact that citizens of more economically insecure countries often report greater happiness than citizens of wealthier ones. Or that many successful businesspeople reject the idea of setting firm goals.
幸运的是，无论古代哲学还是当代心理学都指出了另一种选择：一条与我们的直觉相反的、可以被称为“通往幸福的消极路线”的途径。这条途径可以帮助我们解释一些疑惑，比如，经济不稳定国家的公民报告的幸福感经常比相对富裕国家的公民更强。还有，很多成功的商人拒绝接受为公司设定目标的想法。
One pioneer of the 'negative path' was the New York psychotherapist Albert Ellis, who died in 2007. He rediscovered a key insight of the Stoic philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome: that sometimes the best way to address an uncertain future is to focus not on the best-case scenario but on the worst.
“消极路线”的一名拓路人是已于2007年去世的纽约心理治疗师艾伯特•埃利斯(Albert Ellis)。他重新发现了古希腊和古罗马斯多葛派(Stoic)哲学家的一个主要见解：有时应对一个不确定的未来的最佳办法不是去设想最好的情况，而是要看到最差的局面。
Seneca the Stoic was a radical on this matter. If you feared losing your wealth, he once advised, 'set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: 'Is this the condition that I feared?' '
斯多葛派哲学家塞内加(Seneca)在这方面是一个激进的人。他曾经建议，如果你担心失去财富，“留出一些日子，其间让自己最少量地进食最廉价的食物，穿着最粗糙最劣质的衣服，同时对自己说：‘这就是我担心的状况吗？’”
To overcome a fear of embarrassment, Ellis told me, he advised his clients to travel on the New York subway, speaking the names of stations out loud as they passed. I'm an easily embarrassed person, so in the interest of journalistic research, I took his advice, on the Central Line of the London Underground. It was agonizing. But my overblown fears were cut down to size: I wasn't verbally harangued or physically attacked. A few people looked at me strangely.
埃利斯曾经告诉我，为了克服害怕难为情的心理，他建议他的治疗对象去乘坐纽约地铁，经过每处车站时大声说出车站的名字。我是一个很容易感到难为情的人，因此，为了新闻研究工作，我采纳了他的建议，搭乘伦敦地铁中央线(Central Line of the London Underground)，沿途大声说出车站名。这个过程很折磨人，但是我的过度担心消除了很多：我没有受到别人的言语指责，也没有受到身体侵害。只有几个人用异样的眼光看了看我。
Just thinking in sober detail about worst-case scenarios─a technique the Stoics called 'the premeditation of evils'─can help to sap the future of its anxiety-producing power. The psychologist Julie Norem estimates that about one-third of Americans instinctively use this strategy, which she terms 'defensive pessimism.' Positive thinking, by contrast, is the effort to convince yourself that things will turn out fine, which can reinforce the belief that it would be absolutely terrible if they didn't.
只是冷静地仔细想想最坏的情况──斯多葛派哲学家把这种方法称作“预想不幸”──可以有助于削弱未来制造焦虑的力量。心理学家朱莉•诺勒姆(Julie Norem)估计，大约三分之一的美国人本能地使用了这一策略，她称其为“防御性悲观”。相对照而言，积极思考就是努力让自己相信事情会一帆风顺，它会强化这样一种观念：如果事情进展不顺利，那就完全糟糕了。
In American corporations, perhaps the most widely accepted doctrine of the 'cult of positivity' is the importance of setting big, audacious goals for an organization, while employees are encouraged (or compelled) to set goals that are 'SMART'─'Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.' (It is thought that the term was first used in a 1981 article by George T. Doran.)
在美国企业里，“崇拜积极”的思想中受到最广泛认可的信条可能就是为机构设立宏伟、大胆的目标非常重要，而单位员工也被鼓励（或者被迫）去制订“SMART”──Specific(具体)、Measurable(可量化)、Attainable(可实现)、Relevant(适度)以及Timely(适时)──的目标。（普遍认为这个词是乔治•T.多兰(George T. Doran)在1981年的一篇文章中首次使用的。）
But the pro-goal consensus is starting to crumble. For one thing, rigid goals may encourage employees to cut ethical corners. In a study conducted by the management scholar Lisa Ordóñez and her colleagues, participants had to make words from a set of random letters, as in Scrabble. The experiment let them report their progress anonymously─and those given a specific target to reach lied far more frequently than those instructed merely to 'do your best.'
但是这种赞成制订目标的共识已经开始崩溃了。首先，刚性的目标可能会促使员工突破道德界限。在管理学学者丽莎•奥多涅斯(Lisa Ordonez)和她的同事开展的一项研究中，参与者必须用一组随机给出的字母来组合单词，就像在Scrabble拼字游戏中那样。实验要求他们匿名报告自己的进展──那些领受了明确目标任务的人撒谎的现象远远多于那些得到指示只需“尽力而为”的人。
Goals may even lead to underachievement. Many New York taxi drivers, one team of economists concluded, make less money in rainy weather than they could because they finish work as soon as they reach their mental target for what constitute a good day's earnings.
目标设定甚至可能导致不良的业绩。一个经济学家团队总结说，纽约的很多出租车司机在雨天挣的钱比他们本来能够挣到的要少，因为一旦实现了晴好天气条件下一天所挣收入的心理目标，他们就收工了。
Focusing on one goal at the expense of all other factors also can distort a corporate mission or an individual life, says Christopher Kayes, an associate professor of management at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Prof. Kayes, who has studied the 'overpursuit' of goals, recalls a conversation with one executive who 'told me his goal had been to become a millionaire by the age of 40…and he'd done it. [But] he was also divorced, and had health problems, and his kids didn't talk to him anymore.' Behind our fixation on goals, Prof. Kayes's work suggests, is a deep unease with feelings of uncertainty.
华盛顿特区乔治华盛顿大学(George Washington University)的管理学副教授克里斯托弗•凯斯(Christopher Kayes)说，不惜牺牲其它所有要素来专注于一个目标还会扭曲公司的使命或者个人的生活。凯斯教授对“过度追求”目标的现象进行了研究，他回忆与一名公司高管的谈话时说，他“告诉我他的目标是到40岁的时候成为一名百万富翁……而且他做到了。[但是]他也离了婚，健康出现了问题，他的孩子都不再和他说话”。凯斯教授的研究说明，在我们痴迷于目标的背后是由不确定感引起的深深的焦虑不安。
Research by Saras Sarasvathy, an associate professor of business administration at the University of Virginia, suggests that learning to accommodate feelings of uncertainty is not just the key to a more balanced life but often leads to prosperity as well. For one project, she interviewed 45 successful entrepreneurs, all of whom had taken at least one business public. Almost none embraced the idea of writing comprehensive business plans or conducting extensive market research.
弗吉尼亚大学(University of Virginia)企业管理学副教授萨拉斯•萨拉斯瓦西(Saras Sarasvathy)所做的一项研究表明，学会调节不确定感不仅是让生活更和谐的关键，而且还经常能带来成功。在一个研究项目中，她采访了45名成功的企业家，他们每一个人至少拥有一家上市企业。对于拟定全面的经营计划或者开展广泛的市场研究这些想法，几乎没有一个人乐意接受。
They practiced instead what Prof. Sarasvathy calls 'effectuation.' Rather than choosing a goal and then making a plan to achieve it, they took stock of the means and materials at their disposal, then imagined the possible ends. Effectuation also includes what she calls the 'affordable loss principle.' Instead of focusing on the possibility of spectacular rewards from a venture, ask how great the loss would be if it failed. If the potential loss seems tolerable, take the next step.
相反，他们讲求的是萨拉斯西瓦教授所言的“实效性”。他们不是先选择一个目标，然后制定计划去实现那个目标，而是对手头可支配的财力和物力进行评估，然后构想可能的结果。实效性还包括萨拉斯西瓦所称的“损失可负担原则”。不要只看到一项投资可能带来的惊人回报，要自问一下如果投资失败，损失到底有多大。如果潜在的损失看上去是可以承受的，那就可以采取下一步行动。
The ultimate value of the 'negative path' may not be its role in facilitating upbeat emotions or even success. It is simply realism. The future really is uncertain, after all, and things really do go wrong as well as right. We are too often motivated by a craving to put an end to the inevitable surprises in our lives.
“消极路线”的最终价值也许不在于它有助于达成乐观情绪甚至成功的作用。它不外乎就是一种现实主义态度。毕竟，未来的确是不确定的，事情发展或好或坏。我们太过频繁地产生这样的愿望：一定要制止生活中不可避免的意外。
This is especially true of the biggest 'negative' of all. Might we benefit from contemplating mortality more regularly than we do? As Steve Jobs famously declared, 'Remembering that you are going to die is the best way that I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.'
这一点对于世上最大的“消极事物”来说尤其正确。如果我们比平时更经常地想起死亡这件事，会有什么好处吗？正如史蒂夫•乔布斯(Steve Jobs)的那句名言所说：“记住人都要死，这是据我所知可以避免产生你会有所损失这个思维陷阱的最好方式。”
However tempted we may be to agree with Woody Allen's position on death─'I'm strongly against it'─there's much to be said for confronting it rather than denying it. There are some facts that even the most powerful positive thinking can't alter.
不管我们多么赞同伍迪•艾伦(Woody Allen)对于死亡的态度──“我誓与之抗争”──直面死亡比否认死亡更为明智。有些事实，即便是最强大的积极思考都无法改变。
(─Adapted from Mr. Burkeman's book 'The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, ' published in November by Faber & Faber.)
（本文节选自OLIVER BURKEMAN的新书'The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking'，本书去年11月由Faber &Faber出版社出版。
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