美国的某些心理学家已经开始尝试鼓励他们的患者使用Blog来治疗某些心理疾病。学术专刊《虚拟心理学和行为学CyberPsychology&Behavior》也即将公布一项研究,表明博客比非博客要快乐得多。
心理健康专家认为,日记形式的网络博客,更利于人们把自己内心的痛苦(愤怒、不解、迷惑等等)表达出来,因为有了读者的关注,这些问题很快就能得到人们的帮助。这里帮助并不一定是直接的,而是通过博客与读者相互的沟通交流,慢慢的释放人们心理的压力,达到心理治疗的目的。
原文:
Why do people write confessional blogs?It’s a creative outlet.It’s a forum to vent.It’s an exercise in exhibitionism.To mental-health experts,though,it’s more than that:a blog is medicine.Psychiatrists are starting to tout the therapeutic power of blogging,and many have begun incorporating it into patient treatment.A forthcoming study in the journal CyberPsychology&Behavior even suggests that bloggers might be happier than nonbloggers.
Mental-health experts say blogs are a step up from plain old diaries,chiefly because of the built-in audience.As kids,we learn that if we air our problems,we get help.We associate communication with consolation,particularly when the going gets tough.Blogging fulfills that primal need for sympathy.Writing is an effort of the brain to communicate for comfort,says Harvard neurologist Alice Flaherty.Diaries are a form of that communication,but removed.Blogging gets you closer to that sympathetic audience,and that’s what makes it therapeutic.According to psychologist John Suler,the anonymity of blogging provides another therapeutic boost:it’s high intimacy with low vulnerability.But blogger beware.Revealing too much,says Suler,can cause shame or guilt.So blog to your heart’s content,but leave some things to the imagination.