愤怒的面孔千姿百态

The Varieties of Anger

By LISA FELDMAN BARRETT December 1, 2016

Bitterness. Hostility. Rage. The varieties of anger are endless. Some are mild, such as grumpiness, and others are powerful, such as wrath. Different angers vary not only in their intensity but also in their purpose. It’s normal to feel exasperated with your screaming infant and scornful of a political opponent, but scorn toward your baby would be bizarre.

怨恨。敌意。激愤。愤怒的种类是无穷无尽的。有些较为温和，比如说坏脾气，还有一些则是强烈的，比如说勃然大怒。不同的愤怒不仅在强度上有所不一，而且目的也是多种多样。对哭叫的小婴儿感到恼火，对政敌表示轻蔑，这都是正常的感情，但是对婴儿表示轻蔑就不正常了。

Anger is a large, diverse population of experiences and behaviors, as psychologists like myself who study emotion repeatedly discover. You can shout in anger, weep in anger, even smile in anger. You can throw a tantrum in anger with your heart pounding, or calmly plot your revenge. No single state of the face, body or brain defines anger. Variation is the norm.

我本人是个心理学家，一直在研究情感，正如我们所发现的，愤怒是一组庞大的、多样化的感受和行为。你可以愤怒地喊叫、愤怒地哭泣，甚至是带着愤怒微笑起来。你可以愤怒地发脾气，心脏狂跳，也可以冷静地筹划自己的报复。没有任何一种单一的面部、身体或大脑状态可以定义愤怒。多样化才是常态。

The Russian language has two distinct concepts within what Americans call “anger” — one that’s directed at a person, called “serditsia,” and another that’s felt for more abstract reasons such as the political situation, known as “zlitsia.” The ancient Greeks distinguished quick bursts of temper from long-lasting wrath. German has three distinct angers, Mandarin has five and biblical Hebrew has seven.

美国人所谓的“愤怒”(anger)在俄语中对应着两个完全不同的词——一个是针对个人的，称为“serditsia”；另一个被用于更抽象的原因，如政治局势，称为“zlitsia”。古希腊人用不同的词称呼迅速爆发出来的怒气和长期持久的愤怒。德语中有三个不同的词表示愤怒，中文里有五个，古希伯来语里有七个。

Jun Cen

In the past few weeks, many varieties of anger have been on vivid display. For starters, we now have an iconic angry man as the president-elect. Donald J. Trump is aggressive as he insists there’s something wrong with the country, and offensive when he’s provoked. He employs anger effectively to maintain his power and status. His anger is seen by his fans as strength and by his detractors as bombast.

在过去的几个星期，许多种类的愤怒都得到了生动的展示。首先，我们现在的候任总统就是一个标志性的愤怒人物。唐纳德·J·特朗普(Donald J. Trump)在坚称这个国家有问题的时候表现得格外好斗，被激怒时又显得非常无礼。他有效地利用愤怒来维护自己的权力和地位。他的愤怒被拥趸们视为力量，被批评者们视为虚张声势。

We’ve also seen Hillary Clinton’s more restrained anger, which she has directed against the divisiveness she perceived during the campaign. To her proponents, Mrs. Clinton’s anger fueled her resolve to push back against Mr. Trump’s most egregious statements. To her detractors, her anger made her a shrew.

我们还看到了希拉里·克林顿(Hillary Clinton)更加克制的愤怒，这是针对她在竞选期间所感受到的分裂状态。对支持者们来说，正是愤怒促使克林顿下定决心，反击特朗普那些最恶劣的主张。对批评者们来说，愤怒令她显得像个泼妇。

You, most likely, have also felt a wide range of angers throughout this election. Perhaps you’ve been incensed at the perceived elitism of the 1 percent who seem blind to their own privilege, arrogance and condescension. Perhaps you’ve felt outrage about the humiliation of women, minorities and immigrants. Perhaps you want to lash out against your idiot fellow citizens on the other side of our gaping political divide, or at your own candidate for committing bone-headed errors in judgment.

在这次选举中，你很可能也感受到了广泛的愤怒。也许你对那1%被视为精英的人感到愤怒，他们似乎对自己的特权、傲慢与优越感完全视而不见。也许你对女性、少数族裔和移民所受的屈辱感到愤怒。面对我们不断扩大的政治鸿沟，你或许很想抨击站在另一边的白痴同胞，抑或是批评你支持的候选人犯下了极大的判断失误。

Other varieties of anger involve frustration and helplessness. If you believe you’ve been treated unfairly by the powers that be and left behind economically, you feel this anger. If you shudder in anticipation that eight years of progress will be rolled back, or that other people will decide the fate of the planet and your children will suffer as a consequence, you also feel this anger.

其他种类的愤怒还涉及挫折感与无助感。如果你相信自己被掌权者不公正地对待，在经济上遭到抛弃、落于人后，你便会感受到这种愤怒。如果你一想到八年的进步将要倒退便会全身发抖，觉得地球的命运将由其他人来决定，你的孩子将会因此而受苦，你也会感受到这种愤怒。

Anger can distance people from one another, producing two sides of a vitriolic debate or leading people to isolate themselves from the nastiness. If the election prompted you to shut off the car radio, stop reading Twitter or sit in silence with your gnawing thoughts, you’ve felt this anger.

愤怒可以让人们彼此疏远，令双方尖刻地争吵，或是令人把自己同恶意隔绝开来。如果选举令你关掉了汽车收音机，不再看Twitter，或是满心痛苦，一言不发，你已经感受到了这种愤怒。

But not all varieties of anger are divisive and destructive. Others are uplifting and constructive — an antidote to hopelessness. If you’re furious at the political situation, researchers have found, your anger may lead others to try to soothe you, strengthening your bonds with them. If you believe in a vision of America that has been demolished, the anger you share with other like-minded citizens can be empowering, scientists have discovered, and lead to collective action. This kind of anger can even create a community.

但不是所有类型的愤怒都是产生分裂和破坏的。还有一些是令人振奋和建设性的――它们是绝望的解毒剂。研究人员发现，如果你对政治局势感到愤怒，这种愤怒可能会导致他人试图安抚你，从而加强你与他们之间的纽带。如果你相信美国的愿景被破坏，科学家发现，你与其他有类似想法的公民共有的愤怒可以令你们感到有了力量，并最终化为集体行动。这种愤怒甚至可以创建一个社区。

Buddhism teaches that anger is a form of ignorance, namely of other people’s points of view. If, in the midst of your fury, you can manage to see your opponents not as evil but as frustrated and trying to make a change, anger can actually cultivate empathy for the other side. In this sense, some angers are a form of wisdom.

佛教认为愤怒是无知的一种形式，也就是对他人观点的无知。如果你在愤怒的时候也可以设法看到，你的对手并不是邪恶的，只是感到沮丧和试图改变，那么愤怒实际上可以培养对对方的同理心。在这个意义上，一些愤怒其实是智慧的一种形式。

Another constructive variety of anger can help in a contest, political or otherwise. Think about football players who intentionally cultivate anger before a game. They shout and jump and pump their fists in the air to get themselves in the right frame of mind for crushing the competition. Their aggression enhances their performance and tells their opponents to beware. That’s what happened in the 2016 campaign. Voters worked themselves up into righteous anger and took action.

另一种建设性的愤怒可以在竞赛、政治或类似领域内有所帮助。想想在比赛前有意培养愤怒的橄榄球运动员。他们喊叫，跳跃，挥舞拳头，制造适宜的情绪，以便主宰比赛。攻击性可以让他们有更好的表现并让对手提起注意。这也是2016年的大选中所发生的事。选民投入正直的愤怒，并采取了行动。

There’s even a constructive anger that’s delivered through humor. If you’ve watched late-night TV as comedians skewer political figures that you loathe, you’ve felt this anger and its cathartic effects.

甚至还有一种建设性的愤怒可以通过幽默传达出来。如果你看过深夜电视中喜剧演员讽刺你讨厌的政治人物，你就可以感受到这种愤怒，以及它帮助人宣泄情绪的效果。

We are a divided country, but we are united by anger. Our individual explosions are signals that we care strongly about something — that we’re deeply invested — even if our angers are about different things. Some Americans are newly angry after the election. Others progressed from anger to delight when Mr. Trump prevailed. But if he acts contrary to their expectations, those joyful feelings might well transform into outrage once again.

我们是一个分裂的国家，但我们又被愤怒联合在一起。个人愤怒的爆发表明我们非常在乎某些东西――我们深切地投入其中――即使我们的愤怒所针对的是不同的事情。一些美国人在选举后有了新的愤怒。其他人则因为特朗普的胜利，感到自己的愤怒变成了喜悦。但如果他的行为违背了他们的期望，那些快乐的感觉可能会再次转变为愤怒。