——选自美国心理协会网站（吉玛译）
By helping people manage and learn from negative experiences, writing strengthens their immune systems as well as their minds.
通过帮助人们管理负面经验并从中得以学习，写作增强其免疫系统和思维。
Writing is no stranger to therapy. For years, practitioners have used logs, questionnaires, journals and other writing forms to help people heal from stresses and traumas.
写作对于心理治疗并不陌生。多年来，实践者一直使用日志、问卷、日记和其他书写形式来帮助人们从压力和创伤中得以治愈。
Now, new research suggests expressive writing may also offer physical benefits to people battling terminal or life-threatening diseases. Studies by those in the forefront of this research--psychologists James Pennebaker, PhD, of the University of Texas at Austin, and Joshua Smyth, PhD, of Syracuse University--suggest that writing about emotions and stress can boost immune functioning in patients with such illnesses as HIV/AIDS, asthma and arthritis.
目前，一项新的研究表明，富有表现力的写作有益于那些身患绝症或生命危险的人的身心健康。通过最新调查研究——心理学家詹姆斯尼贝克，德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校以及美国雪城大学的乔舒亚·史密斯博士——认为创作与情绪和压力的相关文章可以提高对艾滋病、哮喘和关节炎等疾病患者的免疫功能。
Skeptics argue that other factors, such as changes in social support, or simply time, could instead be the real health aids. But an intensive research review by Smyth, published in 1998 in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (Vol. 66, No. 1), suggests that writing does make a difference, though the degree of difference depends on the population being studied and the form that writing takes.
怀疑论者认为，其他因素，比如社会支援的改变，或者既定时间，反而可能成为真正的医疗援助。但是，史密斯在1998年发表在《咨询与临床心理学杂志》(第66卷第1页)上的一篇深入的研究报告表明，写作的确会产生影响，尽管差异的程度取决于所研究的人群和写作的形式。
Researchers are only beginning to get at how and why writing may benefit the immune system, and why some people appear to benefit more than others. There is emerging agreement, however, that the key to writing's effectiveness is in the way people use it to interpret their experiences, right down to the words they choose. Venting emotions alone--whether through writing or talking--is not enough to relieve stress, and thereby improve health, Smyth emphasizes. To tap writing's healing power, people must use it to better understand and learn from their emotions, he says.
研究人员才刚刚开始了解写作是如何对免疫系统有好处及其原因，以及为什么有些人看起来比其他人受益更多。然而，有一种新兴的观点认为，书写效用的关键在于人们用它来阐述他们的经历的方式，包括他们选择的词语。史密斯强调，独自宣泄情绪——无论是通过写作还是谈话——不足以缓解压力，从而改善健康状况。他说，要挖掘写作的治愈能力，人们必须用它来更好地理解他们的情绪并从中学习。
In all likelihood, the enlightenment that can occur through such writing compares with the benefits of verbal guided exploration in psychodynamic psychotherapies, notes Pennebaker. He notes, for example, that talking into a tape recorder has also shown positive health effects. The curative mechanism appears to be relief of the stress that exacerbates disease, researchers believe.
尼贝克指出，在所有可能的情况下，与精神动力心理疗法中语言引导探索的益处相比,可以通过写作带来启蒙。例如，他指出，在录音机上讲话也会对健康产生积极的影响。研究人员认为，这种治疗机制似乎缓解了加重疾病的压力。
Health benefits
健康之益
A groundbreaking study of writing's physical effects appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 281, No. 14) three years ago. In the study, led by Smyth, 107 asthma and rheumatoid arthritis patients wrote for 20 minutes on each of three consecutive days--71 of them about the most stressful event of their lives and the rest about the emotionally neutral subject of their daily plans.
三年前，美国医学协会杂志(第281卷，第14号)发表了一项关于书写物理效应的开创性研究。由由史密斯引导的该项研究中，107名哮喘和类风湿性关节炎患者在连续三天的时间里写了20分钟的文章——其中71篇是关于他们生活中最紧张的事件，其余的则是关于他们日常计划中情感中立的的话题。
Four months after the writing exercise, 70 patients in the stressful-writing group showed improvement on objective, clinical evaluations compared with 37 of the control patients. In addition, those who wrote about stress improved more, and deteriorated less, than controls for both diseases. "So writing helped patients get better, and also kept them from getting worse," says Smyth.
写作练习4个月后，相比于37例对照组，压力写作组70例患者在客观、临床评价有所改善。此外，相比于对照组，那些写有关压力的人改善更多，更少恶化。史密斯说:“所以写作可以帮助病人康复，防止他们变得更糟。”
In a more recent study, presented in a conference paper and submitted for publication, Pennebaker, Keith Petrie, PhD, and others at the University of Auckland in New Zealand found a similar pattern among HIV/AIDS patients. The researchers asked 37 patients in four 30-minute sessions to write about negative life experiences or about their daily schedules. Afterward, patients who wrote about life experiences measured higher on CD4 lymphocyte counts--a gauge of immune functioning--than did controls, though the boost to CD4 lymphocytes had disappeared three months later.
在最近的一项研究中，尼贝克，,基思•皮特里博士，以及新西兰奥克兰大学的其他人在会议论文中提出并提交了该研究报告，在HIV / AIDS患者中发现了类似的模式。研究人员让37名患者在4个30分钟的时间里写下消极的生活经历或他们的日常生活安排。后来，那些写了有关生命体验的患者，他们的CD4淋巴细胞计数(一种免疫功能的测量指标)比对照组的要高，尽管3个月后CD4淋巴细胞的增加就消失了。
Regardless, the fact that they at first showed improved immune functioning suggests that it reduced their stress through a release of HIV-related anxiety, says Pennebaker. "By writing, you put some structure and organization to those anxious feelings," he explains. "It helps you to get past them."
尼贝克认为，无论如何，他们最初表现出免疫功能有所改善，该事实表明，通过释放艾滋病病毒相关的焦虑减轻了他们的压力。“通过写作，你将一些结构和组织置于那些焦虑的情绪之中。” 他解释道“它能帮助你克服它们。”
Other research by Pennebaker indicates that suppressing negative, trauma-related thoughts compromises immune functioning, and that those who write visit the doctor less often. Also, Petrie's colleague Roger Booth, PhD, has linked writing with a stronger antibody response to the Hepatitis B vaccine.
尼贝克的另一项研究表明，抑制消极的、创伤性的想法会损害免疫功能，而那些写作的人很少会去看医生。另外，皮特里的同事罗杰·布斯博士也将写作与针对乙肝疫苗的更强的抗体反应联系起来。
Writing right
正确写作
Not everyone agrees, though, that the mere act of writing is necessarily beneficial. In fact, initial writing about trauma triggers distress and physical and emotional arousal, researchers have found. And not all people will work through that distress therapeutically or through continued writing, says psychologist Helen Marlo, PhD, of Notre Dame de Namur University and a private practitioner in Burlingame, Calif. In past research, she found that, contrary to Pennebaker's results, writing about negative and positive life events produced no physical health benefits in undergraduate students.
然而，并不是每个人都同意，仅仅是写文章就一定是有益的。事实上，研究人员发现，最初关于创伤的文章会引发痛苦的身体上和情绪上的觉醒。 那慕尔圣母院大学博士，加利福尼亚州.伯林盖姆私人医生，心理学家海伦·玛洛认为，并不是所有人会完成痛苦治疗或持续写作。在过去的研究中,她发现,与尼贝克结果相反,对于本科生来说，写正面和负面生活事件对于他们的健康没有好处。
"I get concerned that if people just write about traumatic events, they get raw and opened up and aren't able to work through it on their own," says Marlo. Her study did not, however, provide evidence that writing poses any long-term risk to people.
马洛说:“我担心，如果人们只是写一些创伤性事件，他们就会回到原始状态，并不能独自经历他们。” 然而，她的研究并没有提供证据，证明写作给人们带来了长期的风险。
But there is evidence that the nature of a person's writing is key to its health effects, notes health psychology researcher Susan Lutgendorf, PhD, of the University of Iowa. An intensive journaling study (in press, Annals of Behavioral Medicine) she conducted recently with her doctoral student Phil Ullrich suggests that people who relive upsetting events without focusing on meaning report poorer health than those who derive meaning from the writing. They even fare worse than people who write about neutral events. Also, those who focus on meaning develop greater awareness of positive aspects of a stressful event.
但有证据表明，一个人写作的本质是其影响健康的关键，健康心理学研究员苏珊·卢特根多夫博士，爱荷华大学的博士就提出了证据。她最近和她的博士生菲尔·乌尔里奇一起进行了一项深入的记录研究(《行为医学年鉴》)并表明，那些在不关注意义重新生活的人比那些从写作中获得意义的人健康状况差。他们甚至比那些写中立事件的人还要糟糕。同时，那些专注于意义的人会更清楚地意识到紧张事件的积极方面。
"You need focused thought as well as emotions," says Lutgendorf. "An individual needs to find meaning in a traumatic memory as well as to feel the related emotions to reap positive benefits from the writing exercise."
“你需要集中思想和情感，” 卢特根多夫说。“一个人需要在创伤记忆中找到意义，并感受与之相关的情绪，从写作练习中获得积极的益处。”
In explaining this phenomenon, Pennebaker draws a parallel with therapy. "People who talk about things over and over in the same ways aren't getting any better," he says. "There has to be growth or change in the way they view their experiences."
在解释该现象时，尼贝克与治疗并驾齐驱。“那些以同样的方式反复谈论事情的人并没有变得更好，”他说。“必须有丰富或改变他们看待自己经历的方式。”
Evidence of a changed perspective can be found in the language people use, Pennebaker has found. For example, the more they use such cause-and-effect words as "because," "realize" and "understand," the more they appear to benefit.
尼贝克发现，在人们使用的语言中可以找到改变视角的证据。例如，他们越用“因为”、“认识”和“理解”这样的因果关系词，他们似乎就越受益。
Pennebaker also acknowledges that some personality types likely respond better to writing than others. Tentative evidence suggests that more reticent people benefit most. A host of other individual differences--including handling of stress, ability to self-regulate and interpersonal relations--also mediate writing's effectiveness.
尼贝克也承认一些个性的人对写作的反应可能比其他人要好。初步的证据表明，沉默寡言的人受益最大。许多其他的个体差异——包括处理压力、自我调节能力和人际关系——也间接地影响了写作的有效性。
A place in practice?
实践基地?
After all, writing's power to heal lies not in pen and paper, but in the mind of the writer, say a number of psychologists who use it with their patients. That's where clinicians come in, helping clients tap that healing power, they say. Private practitioner Marlo, for example, employs writing cautiously--using it only with patients who take to it, and closely integrating it into the therapeutic process.
一些使用该方法资料病人的心理学家认为，毕竟，写作的力量不在于笔和纸，而在于作者的思维。他们认为，是临床医生的介入，帮助病人发掘治疗的力量。例如，私人执业医师马洛谨慎地使用写作——只适用于适合的病人，并将其与治疗过程紧密结合。
"The cornerstone of therapy is engagement in the therapeutic relationship that addresses the individual's process--especially the intrapersonal, interpersonal, affective and symbolic dimensions of experience," says Marlo.
马洛说:“治疗的基石是参与到涉及个人的过程的治疗关系，尤其是个人内心、人际关系、情感和象征性维度的经验。”
Another practitioner, Judith Ruskay Rabinor, PhD, author of "A Starving Madness: Tales of Hunger, Hope and Healing in Psychotherapy" (Gurze Books, 2002), has her patients explore their anxieties in writings between sessions, e-mailing her as the anxiety strikes them. Rabinor offers feedback on their writing and helps them track progress in their thinking.
另一名医生朱迪思•鲁斯凯•拉宾博士，《饥饿的疯狂:心理治疗的饥饿、希望和治愈的故事》一书的作者，她让她的病人通过远程连接探讨他们的焦虑，当他们感到焦虑时就给她发电子邮件。拉宾为他们的写作提供反馈，并帮助他们追踪他们的思考过程。
Though more studies are needed, many behavioral researchers believe such approaches could also work with treating chronically ill people. "Writing is another potential tool in the armatorium of the clinical professional," says Smyth.
尽管还需要更多的研究来证明，但许多行为研究者认为，这种方法也可以治疗慢性病患者。“写作是临床专业治疗的另一个潜在工具，”史密斯说。
Link：Writing to Heal
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