TED演讲:电击疗法如何改变了我

 　　I'd like to do pretty much what I did the first time, which is to choose a light-hearted theme. 我想能和第一次演讲一样，选择一个轻松的主题。

　　Last time, I talked about death and dying.  上一次我谈论了关于生与死。
　　This time, I'm going to talk about mental illness.  这次我要谈谈精神疾病。
　　But it has to be technological 1, so I'll talk about electroshock therapy. 但它应该是技术性的，所以我要谈谈电击疗法。
　　You know, ever since man had any notion that some of his other people, his colleagues,  大家知道，自从人们发现周边其他人，同僚等
　　could be different, could be strange, could be severely 2 depressed 3  可能是和自己不同的，可能是行径奇怪，或者可能是严重抑郁的
　　or what we now recognize as schizophrenia,  或者是我们现在所指的精神分裂症
　　he was certain that this kind of illness had to come from evil spirits getting into the body. 就断定患了这种病一定是种魔鬼附体的病症。
　　So, the way of treating these diseases in early times was to, in some way or other, 为了治疗这种病症，在早期，应用了不同方法，
　　exorcise those evil spirits, and this is still going on, as you know.  众所周知，驱魔法一直沿用至今。
　　But it wasn't enough to use the priests.  但是仅仅靠祭司是不够的。
　　When medicine became somewhat scientific, in about 450 BC, with Hippocrates and those boys, 在约公元前450年，医药成为一门学科，希波克拉底和学生们
　　they tried to look for herbs, plants that would literally 4 shake the bad spirits out. 尝试研究、寻找草药、植物，从中找出将恶魔驱除出人体的药方。
　　So, they found certain plants that could cause convulsions.  他们发现某些植物可以引发人体抽搐。
　　And the herbals, the botanical books of up to the late Middle Ages,  到中世纪后期和文艺复兴时期的植物学书，即各种本草集，
　　the Renaissance 5 are filled with prescriptions 6 for causing convulsions to shake the evil spirits out. 里面记录有很多药方，都能靠诱发抽筋来驱除恶魔。
　　Finally, in about the sixteenth century,  最后，大约在16世纪，
　　a physician whose name was Theophrastus Bombastus Aureolus von Hohenheim,  一个物理学家，名字叫做Theophrastus Bombastus Auricularis von Hohenheim
　　called Paracelsus, a name probably familiar to some people here, good, old Paracelsus 被称作帕拉塞尔苏斯，在座可能有人知道这个名字，老顽固帕拉塞尔苏斯，
　　found that he could predict the degree of convulsion by using a measured amount of camphor to produce the convulsion. 发现他可以预测抽搐的程度，通过使用定量的樟脑诱发人体抽搐。
　　Can you imagine going to your closet, pulling out a mothball, and chewing on it if you're feeling depressed? 你可以想象吗，走到你的衣橱，拿出一颗樟脑球然后嚼食它，想象这样缓解抑郁？
　　It's better than Prozac, but I wouldn't recommend it.  这个比百忧解（抗抑郁药)有效，但是我可不推荐这么做。
　　So what we see in the seventeenth, eighteenth century is the continued search for medications other than camphor that'll do the trick. 发展到17，18世纪人类继续寻找除了樟脑外的其他办法。
　　Well, along comes Benjamin Franklin,  这时出现了本杰明·富兰克林，
　　and he comes close to convulsing himself with a bolt of electricity off the end of his kite. 通过风筝电流，他几乎诱发自己抽搐，这是通过风筝传导的雷电电流。
　　And so people begin thinking in terms of electricity to produce convulsions.  然后人们开始思考通过电流诱发抽搐。
　　And then, we fast-forward to about 1932,  到了大约1932年，
　　when three Italian psychiatrists 7, who were largely treating depression, 3位主要治疗抑郁症的意大利精神病专家
　　began to notice among their patients, who were also epileptics,  注意到他们的忧郁症病人中，那些同时患有癫痫症的患者，
　　that if they had an epileptic -- a series of epileptic fits,  如果他们癫痫症发作后，连续发作多次
　　a lot of them in a row -- the depression would very frequently lift.  许多人抑郁症便减轻
　　Not only would it lift, but it might never return.  不仅仅是减轻，还可能完全根治。