Letting it out may be bad for your emotional health. Many people assume that sharing feelings openly and often is a positive ide

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问题     Letting it out may be bad for your emotional health. Many people assume that sharing feelings openly and often is a positive ideal that promotes mental health. But some social critics and psychologists now conclude that repressing one’s feelings may do more good than venting emotions.
    "A small number of researchers are taking an empirical look at the general assumption that speaking out and declaring one’s feelings is better than holding them in," writes Christina Sommers, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
    At Suffilk University, psychologist Jane Bybee classified high-school students on the basis of their self-awareness: "sensitizers" were extremely aware of their internal states, "repressors" focused little on themselves, and "intermediates" occupied the middle range. Bybee then collected student evaluations of themselves and each other, along with teacher evaluations of the students. On the whole, the repressors were more socially and academically successful than their more "sensitized" classmates. Bybee speculated that repressed people, not emoters, may have a better balance of moods.
    In a study at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., researcher George Bonanno tested the assumption that, in order to recover mental health, people need to vent negative emotions by discussing their feelings openly. Bonanno and other researchers found that, among adolescent girls who had suffered sexual abuse, those who "showed emotional avoidance" were healthier than those who more openly expressed grief or anger.
    One study of Holocaust survivors supports Bonanno in suggesting that verbalizing strong emotions may not improve a person’s mental health. Researchers found that Holocaust survivors who were encouraged to talk about their experiences in the war fared worse than repressors. They concluded that repression was not pathological response to Holocaust experience and that "talking through" the atrocities failed to being closure to the survivors.
    Sommers note that in many societies it has been considered normal to repress private feelings, and that "in most cultures stoicism and reticence are valued, while the free expression of emotions is deemed a personal shortcoming." She is concerned that pushing someone to be "sensitizers" may also create a preoccupation with self that excludes outside interests. Sommers is particularly critical of educational approaches that attempt to encourage self-discovery and self-esteem through excessive "openness".
    Healthy stoicism should not be confused with the emotional numbness that may be brought on by post-traumatic stress disorder. Most people experiencing such traumas as war, assault, or natural disaster can benefit from immediate counseling, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
In the last paragraph, the author tells us that_____.

选项 A、healthy stoicism is the same as the emotional numbness
B、people who experienced traumas should hold in their emotions
C、people should resort to counseling to let out their emotions
D、repressing one’s negative feelings may not be good for all

答案D

解析 这是一道主旨题。题干中的信号词为the last paragraph,也就是文章的最后一段。文章最后一段指出:人们不应该把有益于身心的忍受痛苦与由“后外伤性情绪紧张疾病”所导致的情感麻木混为一谈;根据国家心理健康协会的观点,大多数经历过像战争、暴行或自然灾害这种创伤的人都可以从即刻的心理咨询中获得好处。这说明,在最后一段,作者主要讲的是:压抑自己的消极情感并不是对所有人都有好处。D说“压抑自己的消极情感可能不是对所有人都有好处”,这可以表达最后一段的主题。文中提到healthy stoicism时是说“人们不应该把有益于身心的忍受痛苦与由‘后外伤性情绪紧张’疾病所导致的情感麻木混为一谈”,这说明A与最后一段的意思相反:文中提到traumas时是说“大多数经历过像战争、暴行或自然灾害这种创伤的人都可以从即刻的心理咨询中获得好处”,这说明B与最后一段的意思不符:C明显不是作者在最后一段要表达的重点。
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