不合“标准”的孩子——神童与自闭儿

此段摘自《个人与群体事件的本质》

第九章第866节

当一个文明不支持创造性时，就会开始没落。当一个国家不信赖天才、不鼓励天才时，就会陷入困境。你们的心理学强调“标准”，这使人们害怕自己的个性与能力，因为心理学的标准无法契合任何一个人的心理轮廓。它无法触及人类经验的高度或深度。人们变得害怕自己的个体性。

鲁柏今天读到一篇有关天才儿童的文章——谈及他们的背景与发展。天才儿童不符合心理学的描画，不符合人们为父母灌输的儿童形象。事实上，由于许多原因，天才儿童只不过表现出了人类天生就有的伶俐机敏、灵活头脑、好奇心及学习能力。他们根本不是人类的古怪版本，却是人类真实能力的暗示。

你们的头脑并不是空的，而是上好油的机器，在你们出生时就准备好开始运转。头脑装备了一种学习的倾向——如你们所了解的，基础知识是存在于头脑之内的。那么，不妨说，头脑在出生前就会思考了，它并不只是做出反应。每个人都有自己独特的能力，有些涉及了与他人的关系，那是你们甚至还没有语言去形容的。不过，父母往往不太赞成孩子显露出不寻常的天分。他们害怕孩子不能与他人和睦相处。他们因为孩子不合标准而感到不安——可是，从来没有一个孩子曾经符合过那个“标准”。

许多成人觉察到自己在某一领域的能力，却故意不把那些能力当回事，因为他们害怕变得“鹤立鸡群” ——或者说他们害怕会被同伴攻击。宗教与科学都曾教导他们，任何种类的卓越都是靠不住的。但每个活着的人都包含了卓越的成分，更有一种想实现那些内在能力的渴望。

我所说的卓越，并不只是关乎名声或通常所理解的才艺或智能，还包括了这样的人——他们的生命有能力容纳伟大的情感内涵。我所说的还有其他的自然能力 ——有关梦的沟通，在日常生活中对梦和创造力的有意识运用。仍有一些人类情感和心理经验的维度一直潜藏着，因为你们死死盯着“标准”概念。于是，任何非公认的经验仍必须是古怪、反常的，在你们的关注焦点之外，被你们的科学所忽略。

说到这一点，许多被老师当成智障的小孩，其实是非常有天分的。这同样也适用于那些爱捣蛋的小孩，他们因过度活跃而被给予药物。他们的反叛是很自然的。至于自闭症儿童，在许多情况下，他们接受了这样的概念——世界是如此不安全，最好根本就不要与它交流，只要自己的要求或需要被满足就够了。当这个孩子被喂饱穿暖并且得到照顾，那么他就会继续自闭行为，而这一行为本身的确使他满足了需要。

而这个孩子感到与世界互动是不安全的。其实，并没有人要剥夺一个小孩的食物，但在这种情形下，如果这个孩子必须要获得食物，或以某种方式做出选择的话，食物也许可被用作一种“治疗”。自闭症儿童害怕做选择。常常，这种恐惧有些是从父母那儿接收到的，因此这个孩子表达了父母未被承认的恐惧。不过，自闭症儿童可以是非常聪明的。

在某种程度上，这样一个小孩象征着，当一个人相信自己没有价值、相信自己不能信任冲动、相信选择带来的问题比好处多、相信隐藏能力比运用能力更安全时，所带来的后果将是什么。生命即表达。

When a civilization does not support creativity it beings to falter. When it distrusts its gifted people, rather than encouraging them, a nation is at least in trouble. Your psychologies, stressing "the norm," made people frightened of their individual characteristics and abilities, because psychology's norm did not fit the contours of any one human being. Ii did not touch the heights or the depths of human experience. People became afraid of their own individuality.

Ruburt today read an article about gifted children — their background and development. Gifted children do not fit psychology's picture. Gifted children do not fit the portrait of children that is sold to parents. The fact is that for many reasons gifted children merely show the latent quickness, mental agility, and curiosity and learning capacity, that is inherent in the species. They are not eccentric versions of humanity at all, but instead provide a hint of mankind's true capacities.

Your brains are not empty, but well-oiled machines ready to whirl into activity at your births. They are provided with a propensity to learn — and the rudiments of knowledge as you understand it exits within the brain. In those terms, now, the brain thinks before birth. It does not simply react. Each individual has its own unique abilities. Some that involve relationships with others, you do not even have words for. Parents, however, often half-disapprove of their children if they show unusual gifts. They are afraid their children will not get along with others. They are upset because the children do not fit the norm — but no child ever fits "the norm."

Many adults, sensing their own abilities in one field or another, deliberately play down those abilities because they are afraid of standing out from "the masses" — or they are afraid they will be attacked by their peers. They have been taught by religion and science alike that any kind of greatness is suspect. Yet each person alive contains an element of greatness; and more, a desire to fulfill those inner abilities.

I am not speaking of greatness in terms of fame, or in terms of usually understood artistic or intellectual abilities alone, but also of people whose lives have the capacity for great emotional content. I am speaking also of other natural abilities — that of dream communication, the conscious utilization of dreams and creativity in daily life. There are dimensions of human sentiment and psychological experience, that remain latent simply because you focus your attention so closely within the idea of "the norm." Any unofficial experience must then remain bizarre, eccentric, outside of your main concerns, and ignored by your sciences.

Many children, for that matter, who are regarded as retarded by their teachers, are instead highly gifted. The same also applies to disruptive children, who are overactive and pin on drugs. Their rebellion is quite natural. Autistic children, in many cases, now, are those who have picked up the idea that the world is so unsafe that it is better not to communicate with it at all, as long as their demands or needs are being met. When the child is fed and clothed and cared for, then it continues its behavior, and the behavior itself does serve its needs.

The child feels that it is not safe to interact with the world, however. No one is going to deprive a child of food, and yet food can be used in such cases, in terms perhaps of treats, if the child must ask for them, or in some way indicate a choice. Autistic children are afraid of making choices. Some of this is often picked up from parents, so that the child expresses their own unacknowledged fears. The autistic child can be highly intelligent, however.

To some extent, such a child symbolizes what happens when an individual believes that he or she is unworthy, that he or she cannot trust impulses, that choices present more problems than advantages. That it is safer to hide abilities than it is to use them. Life is expression.

编译：Laujenny婷/    美编：周周

《赛斯说●第171期》

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