Empathic: An Unappreciated Way of Being
：一种未被欣赏的存在
Carl R. Rogers, Ph.D. Center for Studies of the Person La Jolla, California
(The Counseling Psychologist, 1975, Vol. 5, No. 2-10)
卡尔·博士,加州拉荷亚人的研究中心
《咨询心理学家》1975年，第5期
译者：郑世彦 简里里 胡永康 楼岑渡 杨妍 吴佳烨 褚安敏 刘杨
It is my thesis in this paper that we should re-examine and re-evaluate that very special way of being with another person which has been called empathic. I believe we tend to give too little consideration to an element which is extremely important both for the understanding of personality dynamics and for effecting changes in personality and behavior. It is one of the most delicate and powerful ways we have of using ourselves. In spite of all that has been said and written on this topic, it is a way of being which is rarely seen in full bloom in a relationship. I will start with my own somewhat faltering history in relation to this topic.
这篇文章的主题是，我们应该重新检验和评估这种被称为共情（empathic）的与他人共处的特殊方式。我认为，我们对这一元素关注太少，而其对我们理解动力以及产生人格和行为的改变都极为重要。这是我们使用自身（ using ourselves）的最为微妙和有力的方式之一。尽管这一主题经常被讨论和表述，但是作为一种存在方式，很少见到它在中全面展开。下面将开始讲述我关于这一主题的几分艰难历程。
Personal Vacillations
个人的徘徊
Very early in my work as a therapist I discovered that simply listening to my client, very attentively, was an important way of being helpful. So when I was in doubt as to what I should do, in some active way, I listened. It seemed surprising to me that such a passive kind of interaction could be so useful.
在我作为治疗师的早期生涯中，我发现仅仅是倾听我的，全神贯注地倾听，就是一种重要的有效方式。所以，当我不确定该以某种主动的方式做些什么的时候，我就只是倾听。令人惊奇的是，这样一种被动的交流方式竟如此有用。
A little later a social worker, who had a background of Rankian training, helped me to learn that the most effective approach was to listen for the feelings, the emotions whose patterns could be discerned through the client's words. I believe she was the one who suggested that the best response was to "reflect" these feelings back to the client-- "reflect" becoming in time a word which made me cringe. But at that time it improved my work as therapist, and I was grateful.
后来，一位有着兰克学派（Rankian）背景的社会工作者，帮助我了解到最有效的方法是倾听来访者的、，通过他们的言语可以辨别出他们的互动模式。我相信她的建议是，最好的回应便是把这些情感“反映”（reflect）给来访者——“反映”立即成了我奉承的一个词。但是，那时它帮助了我作为治疗师的工作，因此我心存感激。
Then came my transition to a full-time university position where, with the help of students, I was at last able to scrounge equipment for recording our interviews. I cannot exaggerate the excitement of our learnings as we clustered about the machine which enabled us to listen to ourselves, playing over and over some puzzling point at which the interview clearly went wrong, or those moments in which the client moved significantly forward. (I still regard this as the one best way of learning to improve oneself as a therapist.) Among many lessons from these recordings, we came to realize that listening to feelings and "reflecting" them was a vastly complex process. We discovered that we could pinpoint the therapist response which caused a fruitful flow of significant expression to become superficial and unprofitable. Likewise we were able to spot the remark which turned a client's dull and desultory talk into a focused self- exploration.
再后来，我转到全职的大学岗位，在学生的帮助下，我终于能够找到一些设备来记录我们的面谈。当我们簇拥在能够听见自己的机器身旁，反复播放着一些疑点——会谈中明显出错的地方或那些来访者明显前进的时刻，此时我无法形容我们学习时的激动心情。（我仍然认为这是一种提升治疗师自己的最好方式。根据这些录音里的许多经验教训，我们逐渐认识到倾听情感并“反映”它们，是一个极为复杂的过程。我们发现，我们可以指出那些导致富有成效的重要表达变得肤浅和无效的治疗师回应。同样，我们也能够指出那些把来访者的呆滞和散漫变成专注的探索的标记。
In such a context of learning it became quite natural to lay more stress upon the content of the therapist response than upon the empathic quality of the listening. To this extent we became heavily conscious of the techniques which the counselor or therapist was using. We became expert in analyzing, in very minute detail, the ebb and flow of the process in each interview, and gained a great deal from that microscopic study. But this tendency to focus on the therapist's responses had consequences which appalled me. I had met hostility, but these reactions were worse. The whole approach came, in a few years, to be known as a technique. "Nondirective therapy," it was said, "is the technique of reflecting the client's feelings." Or an even worse caricature was simply that, "in nondirective therapy you repeat the last words the client has said." I was so shocked by these complete distortions of our approach that for a number of years I said almost nothing about empathic listening, and when I did it was to stress an empathic attitude, with little comment as to how this might be implemented in the relationship. I preferred to discuss the qualities of positive regard and therapist congruence, which together with I hypothesized as promoting the therapeutic process. They too were often misunderstood, but at least not caricatured.
在这样一种学习环境下，我们很自然地强调治疗师的回应内容，而不是倾听的共情程度。这样一来，我们变得过于看重咨询师或治疗师的技术。我们变得熟练于分析，擅长分析每一个微小的细节，每一次面谈的起伏过程，并且从微观研究中获取大量的资料。但是，我们专注于治疗师回应这一趋势的影响使我感到震惊。虽然我曾遇到一些敌意，但是这些反应更为糟糕。一些年之后，这全部的方法被认为是一种技术。“非指导性治疗”，它被认为“是一种反映来访者情感的技术。”或者，更为糟糕的讽刺直接说道，“在非指导性治疗中，你就重复来访者所说内容的最后几个词。”我们方法被完全地扭曲，这使我感到非常震惊，因为一直以来，我对共情性倾听几乎没有说过什么；而且，当我在共情的时候，我强调的是一种共情的态度，至于在关系中它可以如何实施几乎没有发表意见。我更愿意讨论积极关注和治疗师一致性的质量，我假设它们与共情一起会促进治疗过程。虽然它们也经常遭到误解，但至少不是讽刺性的。
The Current Need
当前的需要
Over the years, however, the research evidence keeps piling up, and it points strongly to the conclusion that a high degree of empathy in a relationship is possibly the most potent and certainly one of the most potent factors in bringing about change and learning. And so I believe it is time for me to forget the caricatures and misrepresentations of the past and take a fresh look at empathy.
然而，多年以来，研究证据持续增多并有力地指出，关系中高度的共情可能是引起改变和学习最有效的因素，至少确定是最有效的因素之一。因此，我相信现在是时候了——忘记过去的讽刺和误解，并以新的眼光来看待共情。
For still another reason it seems timely to do this. In the United States during the past decade or two many new approaches to therapy have held center stage. Gestalt therapy, psychodrama, primal therapy, bio-energetics, rational-emotive therapy, transactional analysis are some of the best known, but there are more. Part of their appeal lies in the fact that in most instances the therapist is clearly the expert, actively manipulating the situation, often in dramatic ways, for the client's benefit. If I read the signs correctly I believe there is a decrease in the fascination with such expertise in guidance. With another approach based on expertise, behavior therapy, I believe interest and fascination are still on the increase. A technological society has been delighted to have found a technology by which a man's behavior can be shaped, even without his knowledge or approval, toward goals selected by the therapist, or by society. Yet even here much questioning by thoughtful individuals is springing up as the philosophical and political implications of "behavior mod" become more clearly visible. So I have seen a willingness on the part of many to take another look at ways of being with people which evoke se/f-directed change, which locate power in the person, not the expert, and this brings me again to examine carefully what we mean by empathy and what we have come to know about it. Perhaps the time is ripe for its value to be appreciated.
还有一个原因表示这样做似乎是合乎时宜的。在美国过去的一二十年里，许多新的治疗方法占据了中心舞台。其中最为知名的有：治疗、心理剧、原始治疗（primal therapy）、生物能量（bio-energetics）、理性情绪疗法、交互分析（transactional analysis），但是还有更多的疗法。它们的吸引力部分在于这一事实：在大多数情况下，很明显治疗师是专家，为了来访者的利益，经常以戏剧性的方式主动地操纵着情境。如果我正确地理解了未来的迹象，我相信，人们对这种专门技术指导的着迷会有所减少。至于另一种基于专门技术的方法——行为治疗，我相信，人们对其的兴趣和着迷仍然在增加。一个技术的社会乐于发现一门技术，凭借它，人的行为可以向着治疗师或社会所选定的目标被塑造，即使没有他的理解或同意。不过，即使在这里，哲学和政治对“行为方式”的影响变得越来越明显，一些有思想的个体还是提出了许多质疑。所以，我已经看见一种意愿，许多人采取另一种方式看待人们的存在，这种方式带来自我指导式的改变，它寻找当事人（而不是专家）身上的力量，这使我又一次仔细地检查共情到底是什么，我们对它又了解了多少。也许现在时机成熟了——去赏识共情的价值。
Early Definitions
早期的定义
Many definitions have been given of the term and I myself have set forth several. More than twenty years ago (though not published until 1959) I attempted to give a highly rigorous definition as part of a formal statement of my concepts and theory. It went as follows:
共情这个词有过很多定义，我自己也提过好几个定义。20多年前（尽管直到1959年才发表），我尝试给出一个非常严格的定义，作为正式陈述我的概念和理论的一个部分。这个定义是这样的：
The state of empathy, or being empathic, is to perceive the internal frame of reference of another with accuracy and with the emotional components and meanings which pertain thereto as if one were the person, but without ever losing the 'as if’ condition. Thus it means to sense the hurt or the pleasure of another as he senses it and to perceive the causes thereof as he perceives them, but without ever losing the recognition that it is as if I were hurt or pleased and so forth. It this 'as if' quality is lost, then the state is one of identification (Rogers, 1959, pp. 210-211. See also Rogers, 1957)
共情的状态，或者说共情，是准确地觉察另一个人的内在参考框架，这种觉察带有情感的成分和含义，好像你就是那个人，但又永远不失去“好像”的境界。因此，这意味着去感受另一个人感受到的痛苦或快乐，就像他感受到的那样；并去觉察其原因，就像他觉察到的那样，但是永远不失去这一认识：好像我是痛苦或快乐的，如此等等。如果失去了这个“好像”，那么这种状态就是一种认同(Rogers, 1959, pp. 210-211. See also Rogers, 1957)。
Experiencing as a Useful Construct
体验作为一个有用的概念
To formulate a current description I would want to draw on the concept of experiencing as formulated by Gendlin (1962). This concept has enriched our thinking in various ways as will be evident in this paper. Briefly it is his view that at all times there is going on in the human organism a flow of experiencings to which the individual can turn again and again as a referent in order to discover the meaning of his experience. He sees empathy as pointing sensitively to the "felt meaning" which the client is experiencing in this particular moment, in order to help him focus on that meaning and to carry it further to its full and uninhibited experiencing.
为了制定一个当前的描述，我想利用由简德林（1962）提出的体验的概念。这个概念以许多方式丰富了我们的思维，我们在这篇文章中将会看到。简单地说，他的观点是，在人体组织中一直发生着源源不断的体验，个体为了发现他的体验的意义，可以将其作为一个指示物反复地回顾。他将共情视为敏感地指向来访者在这个特点时刻所体验到的“感受意义”，是为了帮助他于那个意义，并将其带到完全的和不受拘束的体验。
An example may make more clear both the concept and its relation to empathy. A man in an encounter group has been making vaguely negative statements about his father. The facilitator says, "it sounds as though you might be angry at your father." He replies, "No, I don't think so." "Possibly dissatisfied with him?" "Well, yes, perhaps," (said rather doubtfully). "Maybe you're disappointed in him." Quickly the man responds, "That's it! I am disappointed that he's not a strong person. I think I've always been disappointed in him ever since I was a boy."
举个例子也许会更清楚这个概念及其与共情的关系。一个男人在会心团体中对他父亲做了暧昧的消极表达。团体引导者说：“听起来好像你是对你父亲生气。”他回答道：“不，我不这么认为。”“也许是对他感到不满？”“嗯，是的，也许。”（说得相当地含糊）。“也许你是对他感到失望。”这个男人很快回应：“就是这样！让我感到失望，他不是一个坚强的人。我认为我总是对他失望，从我还是孩子时起就这样。”
Against what is the man checking these terms for their correctness? Gendlin's view, with which I concur, is that he is checking them against the ongoing psycho-physiological flow within himself to see if they fit. This flow is a very real thing, and people are able to use it as a referent. In this case "angry" doesn't match the felt meaning at all; "dissatisfied" comes closer, but is not really correct; "disappointed" matches it exactly, and encourages a further flow of the experiencing, as often happens.
这个男人检查这些词语的正确性时依靠的什么？简德林的观点是，对此我表示同意，他在检查它们时依靠的是他自己内部正在进行的心理-生理流动，来确认它们是否匹配。这种流动是非常真实的东西，人们能够运用它作为一个指示物。在这种情况下，“生气”与这种感受根本不匹配；“不满”更为接近些，但还不完全正确；“失望”则完全匹配，并促进了这种体验的进一步流动，就如常常发生的那样。
A Current Definition
现在的定义
With this conceptual background, let me attempt a description of empathy which would seem satisfactory to me today. I would no longer be terming it a "state of empathy," because I believe it to be a process, rather than a state. Perhaps I can capture that quality.
根据这个概念的背景，我想对共情进行一个新的令人满意的描述。我不会再把它定义为一种“共情的状态”，因为我相信，与其说是一种状态，不如说共情是一个过程。也许我可以描述出共情的这种特征。（但愿我可以描述出(state of empathy is a process rather a state)这种特性/特征。我是这么理解的）
The way of being with another person which is termed empathic has several facets. It means entering the private perceptual world of the other and becoming thoroughly at home in it. It involves being sensitive, moment to moment, to the changing felt meanings which flow in this other person, to the fear or rage or tenderness or confusion or whatever, that he/she is experiencing. It means temporarily living in his/her life, moving about in it delicately without making judgments, sensing meanings of which he/she is scarcely aware, but not trying to uncover feelings of which the person is totally unaware, since this would be too threatening. It includes communicating your sensings of his/her world as you look with fresh and unfrightened eyes at elements of which the individual is fearful. It means frequently checking with him/ her as to the accuracy of your sensings, and being guided by the responses you receive. You are a confident companion to the person in his/her inner world. By pointing to the possible meanings in the flow of his/her experiencing you help the person to focus on this useful type of referent, to experience the meanings more fully, and to move forward in the experiencing.
与他人实现共情的方法涉及好几个方面。共情意味着进入到他人私密的感知世界，并且在其中感到自在。这包括对于另一个人的内心中发生变化的感知意义（felt meaning）和这个人正在经历的感觉，无论是恐惧、愤怒、脆弱、困惑还是其他感觉，时刻保持敏感。这意味着暂时进入另一个人的生活中，在其中小心地移动而不作任何评价，感受他/她很少察觉到的感受，但却不去揭开这个人完全不曾察觉到的感觉——因为这会变得过于具有侵略性。这包括当你用新奇而不惊讶的双眼去审视令这个人感到害怕的因素时，你要与之交流你对他或她的世界所产生的感受。这意味着需要去经常与这个人核对你对他/她的感受正确与否，并从得到的回应中得到引导。你是他/她内心世界的一名自信的朋友。通过指出他/她的经历可能代表的意义，你帮助这个人关注于这一有效的指示对象、去更完整地感受这些意义，并且在体验的过程中前进。
To be with another in this way means that for the time being you lay aside the views and values you hold for yourself in order to enter another's world without prejudice. In some sense it means that you lay aside your self and this can only be done by a person who is secure enough in himself that he knows he will not get lost in what may turn out to be the strange or bizarre world of the other, and can comfortably return to his own world when he wishes.
通过这种方法与他人接触意味着，在这段时间内你需要把你拥有的观点和价值观放在一边，从而不带偏见地进入另一个人的世界。从某种程度上说，你需要把你自己搁置于一边。而这只有某一种人才能做到，这个人非常具有，并且知道自己不会在他人的可能会有些陌生或奇怪的世界中迷失，而之后又能从容地回到自己的世界中。
Perhaps this description makes clear that being empathic is a complex, demanding, strong yet subtle and gentle way of being.
或许这个描述说清楚了一点：共情是一种复杂的、要求高的、强烈的却又是细微而温和的存在方式。（感觉这句翻译的不好，大家给提提建议吧）
Operational Definitions
操作性定义
The foregoing description is hardly an operational definition, suitable for use in research. Yet such operational definitions have been formulated and widely used. There is the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory, to be filled out by the parties to the relationship, in which empathy is defined operationally by the items used. Some of the items from this instrument, indicating the range from empathic to non-empathic, follow:
前述的描述难以成为一种操作性定义，也不适合在研究中使用。其实共情的操作性定义早已形成并被广泛使用。如巴瑞特-伦纳德关系问卷（Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory），这个问卷由处于一段关系中的双方来填写，而共情程度由问卷中的条目在操作上进行定义。这个问卷中的一些条目表明了从共情至不共情的范围，如下：
He appreciates what my experience feels like to me.
他理解我的经历给我的感觉。（他能够领会我所体验到的，正如我的感觉。）
He understands what I say from a detached, objective point of view.
他可以理解我在一种超然、客观状态下表达的观点。（他从一种分离的、客观的立场来理解我。）
He understands my words but not the way I feel.
但是他只理解我的话，不理解我的感受。（他能够理解我所说的，但那不是我的感受。）
Barrett-Lennard also has a specific conceptual formulation of empathy upon which he based his items. While it definitely overlaps with the definition given, it is sufficiently different to warrant its quotation:
巴瑞特-伦纳德（Barrett-Lennard）还有一份详细的关于共情的概念性陈述，他制定的问卷条目便是从这个基础上而来。尽管这个陈述与之前给出的定义会有重叠，但它也有足够的差异来证明以下的引述：
Qualitatively it [empathic understanding] is an active process of desiring to know the full, present and changing awareness of another person, of reaching out to receive his communication and meaning, and of translating his words and signs into experienced meaning that matches at least those aspects of his awareness that are most important to him at the moment. It is an experiencing of the consciousness 'behind' another's outward communication, but with continuous awareness that this consciousness is originating and proceeding in the other (Barrett- Lennard, 1962).
定性地说，[共情式理解]是一个主动的过程，包括想要知道另一个人完整的、当前的和变化的意识，去努力去接收他的沟通信息和含义，并把他的言语和非言语翻译成他所体验到的含义（至少与当下对于他的意识最重要的那一部分相匹配）。这一过程是理解他人公开谈话的“背后”所表现的意识（这是一种对他人的外部交流“背后”的意识的体验），但是时刻谨记这一意识在他人身上一直产生并延伸。(Barrett- Lennard, 1962)
Then there is the Accurate Empathy Scale, devised by Truax and others for use by raters (Truax, 1967). Even small portions of recorded interviews can be reliably rated by this scale. The nature of the scale may be indicated by giving the definition of Stage 1, which is the lowest level of empathic understanding, and Stage 8, which is a very high (though not the highest) degree of empathy.
特鲁瓦克斯（Truax）及其同事设计了一个由评定者使用的精确共情（Accurate Empathy Scale）（Truax, 1967）。甚至非常少量的会谈记录都能够由这个量表可靠地评定。这个量表的性质可以由几个阶段的定义来表示：阶段1，是最低水平的共情式理解；阶段8，是非常高（尽管不是最高）的共情程度。
Here is Stage 1: Therapist seems completely unaware of even the most conspicuous of the client's feelings. His responses are not appropriate to the mood and content of the client's feelings. His responses are not appropriate to the mood and content of the client's statements and there is no determinable quality of empathy, hence, no accuracy whatsoever. The therapist may be bored and disinterested or actively offering advice, but he is not communicating an awareness of the client's current feelings (Truax, 1967, pp. 556-7).
这里是第 1 阶段：治疗师似乎连来访者最显而易见的感受也完全没有觉察。对于来访者感受的情绪和内容来说，他的回应并不恰当。对于来访者陈述的情绪和内容来说，他的回应也不恰当，而且没有可测定的共情性质，因此，没有任何精确度可言。这位治疗师可能感到厌倦而缺乏兴趣，也可能在积极地提供建议，但他并没有在传达对来访者当前感受的觉察（Truax，1967，pp. 556-7）。
Stage 8 is defined as follows:
第 8 阶段定义如下：
Therapist accurately interprets all the client's present acknowledged feelings. He also uncovers the most deeply shrouded of the client's feeling areas, voicing meanings in the client's experience of which the client is scarcely aware ... He moves into feelings and experiences that are only hinted at by the client and does so with sensitivity and accuracy. The content that comes to life may be new but it is not alien. While the therapist in Stage 8 makes mistakes, mistakes do not have a jarring note but are covered by the tentative character of the response. Also the therapist is sensitive to his mistakes and quickly alters or changes his responses in midstream, indicating that he more clearly knows what is being talked about and what is being sought after in the client's own explorations. The therapist reflects a togetherness with the patient in tentative trial and error exploration. His voice tone reflects the seriousness and depth of his empathic grasp. (Truax, 1967, p. 566).
治疗师能够准确解读来访者当前承认的所有感受。他还会揭露来访者裹藏最深的感受领域，说出来访者体验中他自己很少觉察到的含义……他进入来访者略微提及的那些情感和体验，并做到敏感而准确。呈现出来的内容可能是新的，但并不陌生。尽管第 8 阶段的治疗师也会犯错，但不会是格格不入的错误，并且，由于他们的回应是试探性的，所以这些错误得以被掩护。另外，治疗师对错误很敏感，会很快在中途调整或改变其回应，表明他更清楚地了解了谈论的内容，更清楚地了解了来访者在他自己的探索中追求什么。治疗师在试验性的尝试中反映与来访者在一起的感觉。他的语调反应了共情领会的严肃性和深度。（Truax, 1967, p. 566）。
I have wished to indicate by these examples that the empathic process can be defined in theoretical, conceptual, subjective and operational ways. Even so, we have not reached the limits of its base.
我曾希望通过这些例子来表明，共情过程可以用理论的，概念性的，主观的，可操作的方式定义。即使这样，我们也仍然未曾达到其本质的极限。
A Definition for Contemporary Persons
当代人的定义
Eugene Gendlin and others have recently been involved in a helping community enterprise called "Changes" which has many implications for dealing with the alienated and counter-culture members of the chaos which we call urban living. Of particular interest here is the "Rap Manual" which has been developed to aid the ordinary person in learning "how to help with the other person's process."
尤金·简德林和其他人最近参与了一个被称作“改变”的互助团体项目，这个项目在对所谓的混乱的城市生活中被疏远和反文化的成员造成了不少影响。让人特别感兴趣的是，这里有“交谈手册”（Rap Manual），用于帮助普通人学习“如何协助另一个人的改变”。
This Manual starts out with a section on "Absolute Listening." Some excerpts give the flavor:
这本手册以关于“ 纯粹的聆听”的章节开始。一些摘录展示了其风格：
This is not laying trips on people. You only listen and say back the other person's thing, step by step, just as that person seems to have it at that moment. You never mix into it any of your own things or ideas, never lay on the other person anything that person didn't express ... To show that you understand exactly, make a sentence or two which gets exactly at the personal meaning this person wanted to put across. This might be in your own words, usually, but use that person's own words for the touchy main things (Gendlin and Hendricks, undated).
这并非为人们定制路线。你仅仅是聆听并反馈另一个人说的事情，一步步地，好像就在此刻经历着它的那个人。你绝不混进任何你自己的事情或观点，绝不将那个人未表达的任何东西加给他……为了表明你的准确理解，用一两句话对那个人想要说明的个人意义进行澄清。这可以是用你自己的话，通常如此，但对于敏感的重要事件，用那个人自己的话来表达（Gendlin 和 Hendricks，日期未注明）。
It continues in this same vein, with many detailed suggestions, including ideas on "How to know when you're doing it right."
这一手册全文都是这样的风格，有许多具体的建议，包括“如何知道你正在做的是对的。”
So it seems clear that an empathic way of being, though highly subtle conceptually, can also be described in terms which are perfectly understandable by contemporary youth, or citizens of a beleaguered inner city. It is a broad-ranging conception.
