读莎士比亚可了解病人的心理状态

Doctors should brush up on their Shakespeare to help improve their understanding of how the mind can affect the body, according to an unusual study.

作为英国文艺复兴时期伟大的剧作家、诗人，欧洲文艺复兴时期人文主义文学的集大成者，莎士比亚倘若仍在世也未曾能预料到自己的作品会对解决病人心理问题起到独特作用。据悉，一项独特的研究表明：心理医生应当重温他们所读过得莎士比亚的所有书籍，这对帮助他们更好地了解人的思想是如何影响其身体的。

Dr Kenneth Heaton said many doctors don't realise how many physical symptoms can be caused solely by psychological problems.

肯尼思.希顿博士曾经说过，许多医生从未认识到有多少身体的症状仅仅是由心理问题而引发的。

But the Bard's works help illustrate this link because he had such an 'exceptional awareness of bodily sensations'.

而巴德的作品将有助于阐释人的心理与身体的这种关系，这也是因为他对身体有这种独特的感知力。

The former gastroenterologist and expert on 16th-century literature looked for descriptions of sensory ailments in all 42 of Shakespeare's major works.

约瑟夫（胃肠病学家、十六世纪文学专家），在莎士比亚的42部主要作品中都找到了有关感知性不适的描述。

He found dozens of examples when characters experienced psychosomatic symptoms - which was far more than in the writings of his contemporaries.

他发现很多有关病人所表现的症状受其精神影响的例子，这远比莎士比亚作品中的描述要多得多。

For instance Hamlet is shown suffering from fatigue as a result of grief, crying out: 'How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!'

例如,哈姆雷特因过于悲伤而常在疲惫中煎熬，他呼喊道：“我生活的世界时多么的萎靡、无趣、沉闷、无用啊！”Meanwhile, coldness is shown to be a symptom of shock, as when Juliet in Romeo and Juliet reveals: 'I have a faint cold fear that thrills through my veins.'

书中也阐述了冷酷是受惊后的表现，正如朱丽叶在《罗密欧与朱丽叶》中所表露的 ‘一种微弱寒冷的恐惧感透过我的静脉传遍全身。’

Shakespeare also describes emotional distress as blunting or heightening sensitivity to touch and pain.

莎士比亚也对悲痛情感进行了描述，有时直言不讳，有时也通过增强对触觉及疼痛的敏感来表达。

'Shakespeare's perception that numbness and enhanced sensation can have a psychological origin seems not to have been shared by his contemporaries, none of whom included such phenomena in the works examined,' Dr Heaton, from Somerset said.

‘他认为，麻木与情感的放大可能都受心理影响，而这种心理在同龄人当中可能没有，而在所验讫的作品中也未发现任何人有这种现象，’萨摩赛特的希顿博士写道。

The playwright also refers to dizziness and vertigo in The Taming of the Shrew, while breathlessness is described in at least 11 instances including in Two Gentlemen of Verona. Disturbed hearing features in King Lear, Richard III and King John.

莎士比亚也曾在《驯悍记》中提到头晕和眩晕；有关呼吸困难的描述至少也有十一例，如《维洛那两绅士》所写；还有幻听，在《李尔王》、《理查德三世》、《国王约翰》中亦均有表述。

All of these symptoms can confuse doctors as they have no obvious physical cause.

在没有任何明显身体疾患时，病人的这些症状会使医生摸不清头脑。

Commenting on his study published in Medical Humanities, Dr Heaton said: 'Many doctors are reluctant to attribute physical symptoms to emotional disturbance, and this results in delayed diagnosis, over-investigation, and inappropriate treatment.

巴德在就其发表在医学人文学的研究成果时说：“许多医生不愿将身体症状与情感因素联系起来，这往往会导致诊断延迟、诊断过重和治疗不当。

'They could learn to be better doctors by studying Shakespeare. This is important because the so-called functional symptoms are the leading cause of general practitioner visits and of referrals to specialists.'

因此，医生可以通过研究莎士比亚而变得更好。这之所以重要是因为所谓的功能性症状正是导致普通科医生需要到处走访，而专科医生只需坐等转介信的原因。