介绍:
20160506ou 一中两外锵锵三人行
今日话题： 吃一片药就能不害怕，你吃不吃？
Lincoln: Now, if you could take a pill to cure all your fears, would you take it, yoyo?
yoyo: No, I would not.
Lincoln: Alright, well, this might be something that’s happening in the world of psychology as well. Maybe you can explain to us a little bit more about it.
yoyo: A recent report shows that now experts have made the cure for fear, which is a single pill. Merel Kindt is a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Amsterdam. Kindt has devoted her career to understanding human fear and memory.
She has developed a revolutionary treatment that could neutralize fear memories with a single pill. She hopes that one day she might help millions of people who suffer from PTSD, phobias, and other anxiety disorders. In her clinic, she has seen it work in hundreds of cases, and yet she still marvels every time when she sees someone feel better after a trauma after a short procedure. I think this is quite important for the people that are suffering from PTSD, but with a single pill to conquer the fear, do you want it, Michael?
Michael: I think fear is actually quite an important human emotion and sense, if you like. It’s almost like a handbrake in the brain stopping you from doing stupid things.
Lincoln: wuyou , what are you most afraid of? Do you have any phobias?
yoyo: Lots of phobias!
Lincoln: OK, well, let’s start with your phobias.
yoyo: I’m afraid of spiders.
Lincoln: OK.
yoyo: Rollercoasters [Lincoln: Rollercoasters] Heights [Lincoln: Heights] Taking a flight.
Lincoln: Taking a flight. That’s a lot of phobias!
yoyo: That’s the top of my list.
Lincoln: That’s at the top? Wow, there’s an actual list! So if you could take a pill to get rid of some of those, would you?
yoyo: No [Lincoln: Really?] I think a healthy amount of fear is essential for survival.
Lincoln: A healthy amount of fear? Do you think it’s healthy to be afraid of all of those things and have a list?
yoyo: I’m afraid of it because I will be so alert and I will protect myself.
Lincoln: Spiders I can understand – spiders are scary, Michael, spiders are scary. Agreed?
Michael: Don’t like them, don’t dislike them. I’ll do that thing with the glass and the sheet of paper. [WY: No way!] I won’t pick it up with my hands, but I’ll do that thing with the glass and the sheet of paper.
Lincoln: Heights?
Michael: Not a massive fan of heights [Lincoln: OK, alright] I don’t think I have vertigo, or anything like that.
Lincoln: Rollercoasters?
Michael: Oh, yeah. No, big red flag for me.
Lincoln: Oh, wow! I love that, I love that! This is one of my favourite things, if we had to draw a Venn diagram between the two of you, spiders would be out of it, but rollercoasters [would be] right in the middle.
Michael: But here’s the thing. If rollercoasters are built to sate people’s desire to be scared like this, if you had no fear, there’d be no need for rollercoasters.
Lincoln: Absolutely, yeah. I’m pretty fine for most things, I think.
yoyo: Snakes?
Lincoln: No, no. If I could take…no, because I feel like snakes are dangerous.
Michael: I’ve got a soft spot for snakes, I quite like snakes.
Lincoln: So now, if Michael and I are to draw a Venn diagram that would be completely outside of it.
Michael: You never pick up a snake, never hold a snake?
Lincoln: No!
yoyo: How can you hold a snake? What for? For fun?
Michael: Yeah, the same way you pick up a cat and you pet it. I mean, I wouldn’t pet a snake.
yoyo: A cat is quite different from a snake.
Michael: You can’t stroke a snake. Yeah, I think, not just for PTSD but for other phobias, actually, it is OK to talk about this, and it’s OK to be emotional about it, and just reducing all those years of nuance and study into a little pill, it feels like it cheapens it.
yoyo: And also, scientists have mentioned that it is not really for erasing all those memories, it is simply to neutralize that phobia, to neutralize the bad memory, it is not really [like] you can suddenly stop it and suddenly erase all of them.
Michael: So the idea is it sort of compartmentalizes it, or it allows you to compartmentalize something, rather than be overwhelmed by it? [WY: Exactly]
Lincoln: I think one of the joys of life is actually having a fear and then overcoming it, and then, you know, either through doing it [which is] probably the only way to really do it, but then finding a way to live with it, and then, just for that fear to be gone, just like a little black spot that’s gone out of your mind. I think that’s something that we should cherish.
