人们的恐惧有哪些（我们共有的五种恐惧）

人们的恐惧有哪些（我们共有的五种恐惧）Fear like all other emotions is basically information. It offers us knowledge and understanding—if we choose to accept it.医学专家们告诉我们，当我们害怕时，所产生的焦虑感是一种标准化生理反应。无论是我们害怕被狗咬，害怕提出的约会请求被拒绝，或报税被审查，我们所表现出的肢体信号基本上都是相同的。Fear has gotten a bad rap. And it's not nearly as complicated as we try to make it. A simple and useful definition of fear is: An anxious feeling caused by our anticipationof some imagi

President Franklin Roosevelt famously asserted "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

富兰克林·罗斯福总统有一句名言：我们唯一需要恐惧的，是恐惧本身。

I think he was right: Fear of fear probably causes more problems in our lives than fear itself.

我深以为然。在我们生活中，对恐惧的恐惧所导致的问题要比恐惧本身所导致的问题多得多。

Fear has gotten a bad rap. And it's not nearly as complicated as we try to make it. A simple and useful definition of fear is: An anxious feeling caused by our anticipationof some imagined event or experience.

恐惧可谓臭名昭著，而且也根本不像是我们所刻意营造的那样复杂。一个简单实用的定义是：一种因预料到某种想象的事件或体验而导致的焦虑感。

Medical experts tell us that the anxious feeling we get when we're afraid is a standardized biological reaction. It's pretty much the same set of body signals whether we're afraid of getting bitten by a dog getting turned down for a date or getting our taxes audited.

医学专家们告诉我们，当我们害怕时，所产生的焦虑感是一种标准化生理反应。无论是我们害怕被狗咬，害怕提出的约会请求被拒绝，或报税被审查，我们所表现出的肢体信号基本上都是相同的。

Fear like all other emotions is basically information. It offers us knowledge and understanding—if we choose to accept it.

同其他任何情绪一样，恐惧基本上也等同于“信息”。它为我们提供知识和理解——如果我们选择接受它。

And there are only five basic fears out of which almost all of our other so-called fears are manufactured. These are:

而且，有5种基本的恐惧，我们的其他所有恐惧感几乎都构建于这5种基础恐惧之上。它们包括：

1. Extinction—the fear of annihilation of ceasing to exist. This is a more fundamental way to express it than just "fear of death." The idea of no longer being arouses a primary existential anxiety in all normal humans. Consider that panicky feeling you get when you look over the edge of a high building.

1. 灭绝——恐惧被消灭，恐惧停止存在。这种表达方式比“恐惧死亡”更根本。“不再存在”这种想法会在所有正常人类中激发一种“原始存在焦虑”。想象一下当你站在高楼上往下看时的那种恐慌感。

2. Mutilation—the fear of losing any part of our precious bodily structure; the thought of having our body's boundaries invaded or of losing the integrity of any organ body part or natural function. Anxiety about animals such as bugs spiders snakes and other creepy things arises from fear of mutilation.

2. 伤残——害怕失去我们宝贵身体结构的任何部分；害怕我们身体的界限被侵犯，害怕任何器官、身体部位或自然机能受到破坏。对虫子、蜘蛛、蛇等动物以及其他可怕事物的焦虑感也都源于这种对伤残的恐惧。

3. Loss of Autonomy—the fear of being immobilized paralyzed restricted enveloped overwhelmed entrapped imprisoned smothered or otherwise controlled by circumstances beyond our control. In physical form it's commonly known as claustrophobia but it also extends to our social interactions and relationships.

3. 失去自主性——害怕失去行动能力、无法动弹、受限制、被包围、被压垮、被困住、被囚禁、被窒息，或其他因不可控因素而受限的情形。在实际情形中，通常被称为“幽闭恐惧症”，但这种恐惧也延伸至我们的社交互动和感情关系中。

4. Separation—the fear of abandonment rejection and loss of connectedness; of becoming a non-person—not wanted respected or valued by anyone else. The "silent treatment " when imposed by a group can have a devastating effect on its target.

4. 分离——害怕被抛弃、被拒绝、失去联系；害怕成为“隐形人”——不被任何人需要、尊重或珍惜。当一群人对一个人“冷战”时，会对该人产生毁灭性的影响。

5. Ego-death—the fear of humiliation shame or any other mechanism of profound self-disapproval that threatens the loss of integrity of the self; the fear of the shattering or disintegration of one's constructed sense of lovability capability and worthiness.

5. 自尊死亡——害怕被羞辱，或其他任何可能会破坏自我整体性（自我肯定、自我坚定、坚守个人原则）的深刻自我否定机制。害怕自己对自己的受喜爱程度、自身能力和自我价值所构建起的认知被击碎击垮。

These can be thought of as forming a simple hierarchy or "feararchy":

可以把它们视为一种简单的等级结构，或恐惧等级结构：

Think about the various common labels we put on our fears. Start with the easy ones: fear of heights or falling is basically the fear of extinction (possibly accompanied by significant mutilation but that's sort of secondary). Fear of failure? Read it as fear of ego-death. Fear of rejection? That's fear of separation and probably also fear of ego-death. The terror many people have at the idea of having to speak in public is basically fear of ego-death. Fear of intimacy or "fear of commitment " is basically fear of losing one's autonomy.

想象一下我们常见的很多恐惧。首先是一些简单的：

恐高，害怕坠落：这基本上是对灭绝的恐惧（可能会伴随着对伤残的强烈恐惧，但这属于次要位置）。

害怕失败？可以解读为对自尊死亡的恐惧。

害怕被拒绝？这是对分离的恐惧，另外也很可能是对自尊死亡的恐惧。

很多人害怕在公开场合讲话，这种恐惧基本上属于对自尊死亡的恐惧。

而害怕亲密关系，或恐惧承诺，基本上属于对“失去自主性”的恐惧。

Some other emotions we know by various popular names are just aliases for these primary fears. If you track them down to their most basic levels the basic fears show through. Jealousy for example is an expression of the fear of separation or devaluation: "She'll value him more than she values me." At its extreme it can express the fear of ego-death: "I'll be a worthless person."

其他一些我们所熟知的恐惧也不过是这些基础恐惧的化名。如果你追根究底，你就会发现这些基础恐惧。

比如说，嫉妒的根源，是害怕分离、害怕价值被贬低。“她对他的重视程度要高于对我的重视程度。”极端的嫉妒，则可能源于对自尊死亡的恐惧：“我会是一个毫无价值之人。”

Shame and guilt express the fear of separation and even ego-death. The same is true for embarrassment and humiliation.

羞耻和内疚则表达了对分离、甚至是自尊死亡的恐惧。尴尬和屈辱感同理。

Fear is often the base emotion on which anger floats. Oppressed people rage against their oppressors because they fear—or actually experience—loss of autonomy and even ego-death. The destruction of a culture or a religion by an invading occupier may be experienced as a kind of collective ego-death. Those who make us fearful will also make us angry.

恐惧通常是愤怒的基础情绪。被压迫之人对压迫者感到愤怒，是因为他们害怕——或的确在经历——失去自主性，甚至自尊死亡。入侵者对某一文化或宗教的摧毁，会导致集体性的自尊死亡。

那些令我们感到恐惧的，同时也会令我们感到愤怒。

Religious bigotry and intolerance may express the fear of ego-death on a cosmic level and can even extend to existential anxiety: "If my god isn't the right god or the best god then I'll be stuck without a god. Without god on my side I'll be at the mercy of the impersonal forces of the environment. My ticket could be canceled at any moment without a reason."

一个人在宗教上的固执狭隘，可能根本上是源于对自尊死亡的恐惧，而且可能甚至会导致存在焦虑：“如果我信奉的上帝不是真的上帝，那么我就会没有上帝。没有上帝庇佑，我就会沦落于各种冷漠客观力量的掌控中。我的票可能随时被毫无原因地取消。”

Some of our fears of course have basic survival value. Others however are learned reflexes that can be weakened or re-learned.

诚然，我们的一些恐惧拥有基本生存价值。而其他则是后天习得的反射，而且这些后天习得的反射可以被削弱或重新习得。

That strange idea of "fearing our fears" becomes less strange when we realize that many of our avoidance reactions—turning down an invitation to a party if we tend to be uncomfortable in groups; putting off a doctor's appointment; or not asking for a raise—are instant reflexes that are reactions to the memories of fear. They happen so quickly that we don't actually experience the full effect of the fear. We experience a "micro-fear"—a reaction that's a kind of shorthand code for the real fear. This reflex reaction has the same effect of causing us to evade and avoid as the real fear. This is why it's fairly accurate to say that many of our so-called fear reactions are actually the fears of fears.

当我们意识到，我们很多回避型反应（如果我们在人群中感到不适，我们会拒绝派对邀请；推迟看医生；不敢要求涨薪）都是一些瞬间反射，它们都是我们对我们记忆中的恐惧所产生的反应，那么“恐惧我们的恐惧”这一奇怪观点也就变得不那么奇怪了。

它们发生得是如此之快，以至于我们并没有真正体验到完整的恐惧感。我们体验的是一种“微恐惧”——类似于真正恐惧的一种快捷指令。这种反射与真正的恐惧一样，会让我们躲避、回避。

正是因为这一原因，“我们很多所谓的恐惧反应，实际上都是对恐惧的恐惧”这种说法是相当精确的。

When we let go of our notion of fear as the welling up of evil forces within us，and begin to see fear and its companion emotions as information we can think about them consciously. And the more clearly and calmly we can articulate the origins of the fear the less our fears will frighten us and control us.

当我们不再将恐惧视为体内汹涌而起的邪恶力量，而是将恐惧以及其伴随情绪视为一种“信息”，我们就能够更清醒地去思考它们。我们越能够清楚冷静地阐述恐惧的来源，恐惧的可怕程度和控制力就会越低。