[2022-06-26] The Economist - 中国人的思想警察
![]() CHINA / MENTAL HEALTH
The thought police
China’s mental-health crisis is getting worse. Covid lockdowns and constant surveillance probably do not help
中国 / 心理健康
思想警察
中国的心理健康危机正在恶化。 疫情封城和持续监控可能只会帮倒忙
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IT IS NO surprise that demand for psychotherapy is increasing in China. Take the residents of Shanghai, who recently suffered through months of lockdown. Now they are free to move about, but still constantly tested for covid-19, with a positive result landing them in an isolation centre. If the virus is not causing enough anguish, there is also the struggling economy. China’s youth-unemployment rate has shot up to 18.4%. Don’t complain too much, though, lest the state take notice. Censorship, surveillance and oppression, on the rise ahead of a Communist Party congress later this year, add to the anxiety.
中国对心理治疗的需求不断增加也就不足为奇。 以最近经历数月封城的上海居民为例。 现在，他们可以自由活动，但仍不断进行武汉肺炎测试，结果呈阳性，将他们送入隔离中心。 如果病毒没有引起足够的痛苦，还有陷入困境的经济。 中国青年失业率飙升至18.4%。 不过，不要抱怨太多，以免国家注意到。 在今年晚些时候召开的共产党代表大会之前，审查、监控和压迫不断增加，加剧了人们的焦虑。
China’s collective mental health seemed to be declining even before the pandemic. In Shanghai the suicide rate has been rising since 2009. Covid has not helped. Suicides in Wuhan, the city where the virus was first identified, were 79% higher in the first quarter of 2020 (when it was under lockdown) than in the same period a year earlier. When Shanghai entered lockdown in April, a survey of residents found that more than 40% were at risk of depression. Searches in Shanghai for “psychological counselling” on Baidu, a search engine, rose by 253% that month.
甚至在大流行之前，中国的集体心理健康似乎就在下降。 自 2009 年以来，上海的自杀率一直在上升。武汉肺炎没有帮助减缓。 武汉是首次发现该病毒的城市，2020 年第一季度（当时处于封城状态）的自杀率比去年同期高出 79%。 当上海在 4 月进入封城状态时，一项对居民的调查发现，超过 40% 的人有患抑郁症的风险。 当月，上海在搜索引擎百度上的“心理咨询”搜索量增长了 253%。
China has come a long way since the Mao era, when psychology was outlawed and sufferers of mental illness were accused of lacking revolutionary zeal. In recent years the government has passed laws promoting mental health and set itself related goals, such as treating more people who are depressed. But the government itself is a big part of the problem. It is not just that lockdowns and oppression lead to anxiety and depression. The party is also trying to use psychotherapy to mould compliant, socially conservative citizens.
自腊肉时代以来，中国已经取得了长足的进步，当时心理学被取缔，精神病患者被指责缺乏革命热情。 近年来，政府通过了促进心理健康的法律，并为自己设定了相关目标，例如治疗更多抑郁症患者。 但政府本身是问题的很大一部分。 不仅仅是封城和压迫会导致焦虑和抑郁。 该党还试图利用心理疗法来塑造顺从、社会保守的公民。
In some cases there are echoes of the past. Dissidents, for example, have been committed to psychiatric hospitals against their will. In 2018 Dong Yaoqiong streamed video of herself splashing ink on a poster of President Xi Jinping while accusing the party of “thought control”. Uniformed men then took her away and (with no hint of irony) stuck her in a psychiatric clinic. Last year Li Tiantian voiced support online for a teacher in Shanghai who had been dismissed. The police reportedly forced their way into Ms Li’s home and took her to a psychiatric hospital, too (the state said her committal was voluntary).
在某些情况下，有过去的回声。 例如，持不同政见者违背自己的意愿被送进精神病院。 2018年，董瑶琼在网上流传自己在希望主席海报上泼墨的视频，指责中共“思想控制”。 然后穿制服的男人把她带走，（没有讽刺意味）把她关进了精神病院。 去年，李甜甜在网上表达了对上海一名被解雇教师的支持。 据报道，警察强行进入李女士的家中，并将她也带到了一家精神病院（国家称她的入院是自愿的）。
Often the state’s tactics are more subtle. After an earthquake in Sichuan province in 2008, therapists were ordered to guide parents away from complaining about the poorly constructed schools that had collapsed on their children. In an effort to promote social stability, therapists are employed by courts to convince people seeking divorce to stay married. Guidance counsellors in schools have received awards for steering adolescent boys away from homosexuality, which is out of step with the party’s conservative values.
国家的策略往往更加微妙。 2008 年四川省发生地震后，治疗师奉命引导家长不要抱怨倒塌在孩子们身上的学校建筑简陋。 为了促进社会稳定，法院聘请治疗师说服寻求离婚的人保持婚姻。 学校的辅导员因引导青春期男孩远离同性恋而获奖，因为这与党的保守价值观不符。
“If I am not careful, I can easily become their instrument of control,” a therapist for the police told Li Zhang, who has written a book about the politics of psychotherapy called “Anxious China”. The therapist said she worried about having to file reports to senior police officers about her conversations with patients.
“如果我不小心，我很容易成为他们的控制工具，”一名警察治疗师告诉李章，他写了一本关于心理治疗政治的书，名为《焦虑的中国》。 治疗师说，她担心不得不向高级警官报告她与病人的谈话。
Legitimate therapists are in a tough spot. Until 2017 the requirements for certification as a psychological counsellor were minimal. Quacks, profiteers and those with little experience benefited. China has since scrapped that system, but not replaced it with a new certification process. “No wonder a lot of ordinary people don’t trust therapists,” says Ms Zhang.
合法的治疗师处境艰难。 直到 2017 年，心理咨询师的认证要求都很少。 庸医、奸商和经验不足的人从中受益。 此后，中国取消了该系统，但并未用新的认证程序取而代之。 “难怪很多普通人不信任治疗师，”张女士说。
Even therapists who work outside government settings feel pressure to promote “positive energy”, one of Mr Xi’s favourite terms. Before the pandemic he ordered the media to push inspirational stories. That effort has gone into overdrive since covid arrived. During the lockdown in Wuhan, officials suggested that residents be taught to give thanks to Mr Xi and the party for their management of the virus. During the lockdown in Shanghai, videos of children thanking health workers in song went viral. Meanwhile, online complaints about health workers breaking into people’s homes and killing pets were censored.
即使是在政府机构以外工作的治疗师也感到压力，要宣传“正能量”，这是希望最喜欢的术语之一。 在武汉肺炎大流行之前，他命令媒体传播鼓舞人心的故事。 自从武汉肺炎到来以来，这种努力就变得超速了。 在武汉封城期间，官员们建议教育居民感谢希望和党对病毒的管理。 在上海封城期间，儿童用歌曲感谢卫生工作者的视频在网上疯传。 与此同时，有关卫生工作者闯入人们家中并杀死宠物的在线投诉受到审查。
Therapists describe this as a kind of gaslighting, in which the state tries to make suffering citizens doubt their own feelings. An extreme case came in May, when a journalist for Wenhui Daily, a staterun newspaper, died. She had written stories praising the fight against covid in Shanghai right up until her death, which was reported as a heart attack. Some close to her think it was suicide. It is not uncommon for people’s anger at irrational government policies to turn to helplessness, say therapists. “What can you do? You’re angry and it’s useless,” says one in Shanghai. “So you drop that and go to the next stage, which is sorrow.” Chinese activists have long had a term for this: zhengzhixing yiyu (political depression). Now ordinary people are experiencing it, too. ■
治疗师将此描述为一种煤气灯，国家试图让受苦的公民怀疑自己的感受。 一个极端的案例发生在5月份，官方报纸《文汇报》的一名记者去世。 直到她去世前，她一直在写故事赞美上海与武汉肺炎的斗争，据报道她死于心脏病发作。 一些接近她的人认为这是自杀。 治疗师说，人们对不合理的政府政策的愤怒转向无助的情况并不少见。 “你能做什么？ 你生气了，也没用，”一位上海人说。 “所以你放弃它，进入下一个阶段，那就是悲伤。” 中国的维权人士早就有一个术语：政治行一遇（政治萧条）。 现在普通人也在经历。 ■标红字体均为楼主更改，与原文作者无关。
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