dreams|为什么说不要把梦轻易告诉别人?( 二 )


首先 ,大多数梦境中的的情感都是消极的 。 同样 , 人们倾向于梦到祖先延续下来的那些威胁: 坠落、被追赶、自然灾害等等 。 这些令人恐惧的元素在梦境中占有很大的比例——也即是说 , 我们在梦境中经历这些场景的频率远远多于我们每天在现实世界中能够预见的 。 许多人梦到自己被动物追赶 , 但是这种情形有多少几率会真正发生呢?在梦境中被动物追赶 , 尤其是小孩被追赶 , 这个高频率的情景表明了我们对这些场景有着天生的恐惧 。 相反的 ,我们不会梦见现代社会中的威胁 , 比如心脏病 。 同样 , 你也不会期待梦境的基础是我们在当今世界中遇到的问题 。
These two theories of dreaming are often presented as competing, but as far as I can tell they are compatible—that is, even if dreams are interpretations of chaotic input from the spinal cord, there is still a theory needed to describe how chaotic input is elaborated into narratives that we experience as dreams, and it's quite possible that the mind takes advantage of this opportunity to practice dealing with dangerous things.
尽管这两个理论往往以互相矛盾的形式呈现 , 但目前我认为它们是可以同时存在的——即使梦境是对传输给脊髓神经的混乱信息的理解 , 我们依然需要理论来对混乱信息变为故事的过程进行解释 , 这些故事也就是我们所谓的梦境 。而且我们的心智很有可能利用这一过程的优势 , 练习如何处理危险的事情 。
Why do we feel the urge to talk about our dreams? A suggested ramification of threat simulation theory relates to the idea that “two heads are better than one:” discussion of dreams might be adaptive if they help us mentally prepare for threats. We like to talk about dreams to help us prepare for how to act in dangerous situations in the future.
为什么我们要这么急切去讨论我们的梦?“两个脑袋比一个好” , 这种观点可以称作是模拟威胁理论的一个衍生理论 。 如果梦境能够在精神上帮助我们应对威胁 ,那么对于梦的探讨或许能够增强我们的适应能力 。 在未来 , 我们将会通过讨论梦境来帮助自己应对危险的情境 。
dreams|为什么说不要把梦轻易告诉别人?
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Which leads us to why we find our own dreams so interesting. There are three reasons based on known psychological effects, though all of them are speculative in terms of my application of them to dreams.
这让我们知道为什么我们发现自己的梦也如此有趣 。 基于已知的心理影响 ,梦境如此有趣的主要原因有三个:
【dreams|为什么说不要把梦轻易告诉别人?】The first is negativity bias, which makes us pay attention to dangerous things.
首先是负面偏见 , 这让我们关注危险的东西 。
The second reason has to do with the emotional primacy of dreaming—because so many dreams are so emotional, they feel important in a way that people hearing about them, not feeling that emotion, might find hard to relate to. Once I dreamed of a terrifying staircase. When I told my girlfriend about it, she laughed at me for being scared of such a harmless thing. In the dream it was scary, but clearly my audience couldn’t appreciate that.
第二个原因: 梦境遵循情感至上原则——因为许多梦都很情绪化 , 它们很重要 , 但是如果你难以跟梦境关联 , 就感觉不到这种情感 。 我曾经梦到过一个恐怖的楼梯 , 当我跟女朋友谈起这个梦时 , 她嘲笑我竟然会被这种无害的东西吓到 。 在梦境中它非常吓人 , 但我的听众明显没有领会到这种感觉 。


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