In 1925 a tiny sanitarium1 for mental patients was established on a farm outside Topeka, Kansas. At a time when the “rest cure” was in vogue2 in psychiatry3, a team of physicians—a father and his two sons recently out of medical school—determined to create a family atmosphere among their patients. The nurses were given specific directions on how they were to behave toward specific patients: “Let him know that you value and like him.” “Be kind but firm with this woman—don't let her become worse.”
Those young doctors were Karl and Will Menninger, and the Menninger Clinic, using such “revolutionary” methods, has become world famous. More psychiatrists4 journey to Topeka for extra training than to any other such institution in the world.
Karl Menninger, summing up, said, “Love is the medicine for the sickness of mankind. We can live if we have love.”
The same message comes from another psychiatrist—now world famous also— who discovered it in another setting5. Viktor Frankl, a Viennese Jew, was interned6 by the Germans for more than three years. He was moved from one concentration camp to another, even spending several months at Auschwitz. Dr. Frankl said that he learned early that one way to survive was to shave every morning, no matter how sick you were, even if you had to use a piece of broken glass as a razor7. For every morning, as the prisoners stood for review, the sickly ones who would not be able to work that day were sent to the gas chambers. If you were shaven, and your face looked ruddier8 for it, your chance of escaping death that day were better.
Their bodies wasted away9 on the daily fare10 of 10.5 ounces of bread and 1.75 pints of thin gruel. They slept on bare board tiers11 seven feet wide, nine men to a tier. The nine men shared two blankets together. Three shrill12 whistles awoke them for work at 3:00 a.m.
One morning as they marched out to lay railroad ties in the frozen ground miles from the camp, the accompanying guards kept shouting and driving them with the butts13 of their rifles. Anyone with sore14 feet supported himself on his neighbor's arm. The man next to Frankl, hiding his mouth behind his upturned collar, whispered,
“If our wives could see us now! I do hope they are better off15 in their camps and don't know what is happening to us.”
Frankl writes:
That brought thoughts of my own wife to mind. And as we stumbled on for miles, slipping on icy spots, supporting each other time and again16, dragging one another up and onward, nothing was said, but we both knew: each of us was thinking of his wife. Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars were fading and the pink light of the morning was beginning to spread behind a dark bank of clouds. But my mind clung17 to my wife's image, imagining it with an uncanny18 acuteness19, I heard her answering me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look.
A thought transfixed20 me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed21 as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth—that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire22. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart23: the salvation24 of man is through love and in love.
It is perhaps the most powerful thought that anyone can have. When we remember the primacy25 of love, and believe in our almost unlimited capacities for giving and receiving it, life can take on26 a vast joyfulness. Teilhard de Chardin once wrote, “Someday, after we have mastered the winds and the waves, the tides, and gravity, we will harness27 for God the energies of love, and then for the second time in the history of the world man will have discovered fire.”
1925年，在堪萨斯州托皮卡市郊的一家农场，兴建了一所收容精神病患者的小型疗养院。当时，“休憩疗养法”在精神病治疗领域风行一时。一个由一位父亲和两个刚刚从医学院毕业的儿子组成的医疗小组决定在疗养院营造一种家庭氛围。在那里，护士们接受特殊培训，目的是让她们了解如何与各式各样的病人相处。“要让他知道你重视他，你喜欢他”。“对这位女士和蔼的同时也要注意态度坚决，可不要让她的情况变得更糟。”
这两位年轻医生名叫卡尔·梅林格和威尔·梅林格。由于采用了这种富有创意的方法，他们所创立的梅林格诊所已闻名全球。现在，前往托皮卡市接受特别培训的精神病医师比在世界上任何其他同类机构的都多。
对此，卡尔·梅林格总结道：“爱是医治人类疾病的良药。只要我们心中有爱，我们就能生存。”
持同样观点的还有另一位杰出的精神病学家，而他却是在另一种环境中发现这一秘诀的。维克多·弗兰克是犹太裔维也纳人，曾被德国人拘禁了三年多。那段日子里，他在数所集中营间辗转流离，甚至在奥斯威辛集中营也捱过几个月。弗兰克医生说，在集中营的日子里，他早就发现活下来的一种方式就是每天早晨为自己刮胡子，无论身体多虚弱，即使只能用碎玻璃片当剃刀也得这样做。因为每天清晨，所有囚犯站立接受检查时，那些当日无法劳动、面色苍白的囚犯将被送往毒气室。如果你刮过胡须，面色会显得红润些，那么你就可能逃过死劫。
集中营囚犯的身体日益消瘦。他们每天的食物只有10.5 盎司面包和1.75品脱稀粥，天天睡的是光木板拼成的通铺，通铺约七英尺宽，却睡着九个人，只有两条毯子。每天凌晨3点，三声刺耳的哨声常将他们惊醒，尔后他们就开始一天的劳作。
一天清晨，在离集中营数里之外冻结的泥土上，他们步履蹒跚铺设铁路枕木，随行的看守不停地叫嚷着，还凶狠地用枪托推搡着这些可怜的囚犯。如果有人脚痛实在走不动了，就只能借同伴的臂膀强撑着自己。弗兰克身边的同伴，嘴藏在竖起的领子里，低声道：
“如果能见到自己的妻子该有多好啊！我希望她们在其他集中营里情况能好些，可千万别知道我们受了什么苦。”
弗兰克写道：
那让我想起了我的妻子。我和同伴跌跌撞撞走了好几英里，时而滑倒在结冰的土地上，时而互相搀扶，拽着伙伴爬起来继续前进，一路上我们一言未发，但我俩都知道：我们都在思念自己的妻子。偶尔，我抬头仰望天空，看到星光渐渐黯淡，早晨淡红色的阳光从昏暗的云层后面慢慢扩散。然而妻子的身影却一直萦绕在我的脑际，异乎寻常的清晰。我似乎听到她在回应我的呼唤，似乎看到她那甜美的微笑、她那坦率真诚、鼓舞人心的表情。
此时此刻，一个想法忽然占据了我的心扉。这是我平生第一次发现这个真谛。不知曾有多少诗人为之吟诗作赋，又有多少智者称之为至理名言。这一真谛就是：爱是人类孜孜以求的最终和最高目标。这时，我才领悟到人类的诗歌、思想和信念所蕴涵的最大奥秘：只有藉着爱和生活在爱中，人类才能得到拯救。
这也许是一个人所能拥有的最具震撼力的思想了。当我们铭记爱享有至高无上的地位，当我们相信我们能够无限地爱与被爱，生活将充满了欢乐。夏尔丹曾写到：“终有一天，在我们制服风浪、海潮和地球引力之后，我们还要为造物主利用爱的力量，而那时也就是人类历史上第二度发现火种之时。”
1. sanitarium n. 疗养院，疗养所
2. in vogue 正在流行 n. 流行，风行
3. psychiatry n. 精神病治疗
4. psychiatrist n. 精神病医师，精神病学家
5. setting n. 环境
6. intern v. 拘留
7. razor n. 剃刀
8. ruddy adj. 红的，红润的
9. waste away 日益消瘦，日渐衰弱
10. fare n. 食物
11. tier n. （一）排，（一）层
12. shrill adj. 尖声的，刺耳的
13. butt n. (工具、武器等)粗大的一头
14 sore adj. 疼痛的
15. well off 境遇好的
16. time and again 反复
17. cling v. 粘着
18. uncanny adj. 异乎寻常的
19. acuteness n. 剧烈，敏锐
20. transfix v. 使呆住
21. proclaim v. 宣布，声明
22. aspire v. 热望，立志
23. impart v. 给予，传授，告知
24. salvation n. 拯救，救助
25. primacy n. 首位
26. take on 呈现，具有
27. harness v. 利用