Recently, I have started reading the book The Man Who Wasn’t There: Investigations into the Strange New Science of the Self by Anil Ananthaswamy. After just reading the first chapter, I have learned so much! Anil shed light upon “self” through carefulexamination of psychological disorders. I couldn’t help myself from wanting to share what I have learned from reading this mind-blowing book, and so I decided to share and translate my reading notes (also as a way to practice my Chinese and improve my translation skill).
P.S. I need to thank Google and Baidu for helping me to do the translation, translating is a tough task, especially when my knowledge of Chinese is so limited.
我最近在读Anil Ananthaswamy写的「不存在的人：通过新奇的新科学来调查自我」。只读完第一章之后我就学到了很多知识！Anil通过细心地调查各种心里障碍来阐明“自我”。我不能自已地想分享我从这本令人兴奋的书中学到的知识，所以我决定分享和翻译我的读书笔记（还有就是练习使用中文和提高我的翻译能力）。
附：我要感谢谷歌和百度给我提供翻译上的帮忙（尤其是专用术语），翻译真的非常不容易，尤其是因为我的中文词汇量还不够多。
Chapter one: The Living Dead // 第一章：活死人
· Cotard’s syndrome: “ ‘Cotard’s delusion’ has come to refer to the most striking symptom of the syndrome––the belief that one is dead”
科塔尔氏综合征：“科塔尔氏妄想”这词是用来形容这个综合症最引人注目的症状——那就是当一个活着的人相信自己已经死了。
· Depression scale regarding to Cotard’s syndrome
可见科塔尔氏综合征的患者是患有着极端忧郁的症状
· Patients with Cotard’s syndrome can recovered using ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) treatment
有科塔尔氏综合征的患者可以通过电痉挛疗法来恢复
· “For Cohen, Cotard’s syndrome is revealing of the workings of the self. The disorder is a deeply felt disturbance of one’s being, and shows that the self is linked to one’s body, one’s story, and one’s social and cultural milieu. Brain, body, mind, self, and society are inextricably linked.”
对于Cohen (书中提及的精神科医生) 来说，科塔尔氏综合征揭示了自我是怎么运行的。这个心理障碍来自于一个人从内心深处感受到自己的存在是对外界的一种妨碍，由此显示出自我是与一个人的身体、经历、社交,和文化环境息息相关的。脑袋，身体，精神，自我，和社会之间是有着千丝万缕的联系。
· “Laurey’s team has shown that the frontoparietal network associated with conscious awareness is actually two different networks. Activity in one correlates with awareness of the external: a network of lateral frontoparietal brain areas––the regions on the outer side of the frontal and parietal lobes. The other correlates with awareness of the internal and is potentially related to aspects of the self: a network of areas along the brain’s midline––the inner parts of the frontal and parietal lobes, near the cleft that separates the two hemispheres of the brain.”
Laurey（书中提及的神经科学家）的团队表示位于额顶连带自觉意识的网络实际上是两个不同的网络。其中一个网络的活动是对应着外在意识：在脑的侧额顶部的网络--在额叶和顶叶外部的区域。另外一个网络的活动是对应着内在意识，也是与某方面的自我有着潜在的关联：沿着脑部中线的网络区域--在额叶和顶叶的内部，靠近分隔着两边大脑的裂缝。
· “Studies in healthy patients showed that these two dimensions of awareness are inversely correlated: if you are paying attention to the external world, then activity in the network associated with external awareness goes up while the regions associated with internal awareness dampen down. And vice versa.”
通过研究健康的接受治疗者后发现这两范围的意识是负相关的：如果你把注意力集中在外部的世界，那相连着外部意识网络的活动就会上升，相反，相连着内在意识网络的活动就会下降。如果把注意力集中在内在的世界的话，反之亦然。
· “ ‘The self,’ said Laureys, ‘is not something that can be localized to one brain area.’”
Laureys 说：“塑造自我的脑子部位不能只局限于一个部位。”
· “There’s growing evidence that the insula is responsible for the subject perception of our body states, a crucial aspect of our conscious experience of selfhood.”
现在有更多的研究结果指向脑岛是负责有关我们主观地去认知我们对自己的身体情况的脑部位，也起到能让我们去有意识地感知自我的一个关键作用
· The immunity principle –– “I” is subjective, thus can’t be wrong
免疫原则–“我”不可能是错的，因为是“我”的视角和感受
