架空馬戲團

大家稍安勿躁，本文完全不涉及《人魚之歌》這本小說的優劣評斷，純粹是我讀到一半很有感覺的小小抒發。以下節錄的部分是書中男女主角 (女：刑案探員、男：犯罪心理分析師)之間的談話。不知怎的，這段對話彷彿刺中了心中的某道封印，讓我的防衛機轉瞬間轟隆轟隆地運作起來，大叫: "EW, GROSS!!!! (嗚，噁心死了！)"

以下是不按中文版翻譯逐字抄寫的個人自譯版，可能會有爆雷，爆雷過敏者請自行慎入：

"And you're absolutely convinced that it isn't a woman?" she asked.

「你完全篤定兇手不是女人嗎？」她問。


"The psychology's all wrong. Taking the most obvious point, this killer's an obsessive, and that tends to be a male trait. How many women do you know who hang about station platforms in the rain in anoraks writing down train numbers?"

「如果是那樣，兇手的心理就完全亂了套。拿最明顯的一點來說，這個兇手有強迫症，而強迫症是男性較易罹患的心理疾患。妳看過幾個女人會穿著雨衣在雨中的月台上徘徊、記下火車班次號碼？」


"But what about that syndrome, what's it called, where people get obsessed with someone else to the point where they make their lives a misery? I thought it was mainly women who suffer from that?"

「可是不是有那個，叫什麼來著的心理疾病，會讓患者對某人執著到把自己的生活搞得生不如死嗎？印象中罹患那種病的大部分都是女人啊？」


"De Clerambault's Syndrome," Tony said.

「愛情妄想症。」東尼回答。


"And yes, it is principally women who suffer from it. But they only focus on one person, and the only person who's likely to get dead as a result is the sufferer, who sometimes commits suicide. The thing is that women's obsessions and compulsions are different from men's. Men's obsessions are about control; they collect stamps and catalogue them, they collect a pair of knickers from every woman they've slept with. They need trophies.

「沒錯，這種心理疾病的患者主要都是女人。然而，患者只會固著於一個對象，而且最後死亡的往往都是都是患者本人，因為她們有時會自殺收場。問題在於女人的執迷和衝動和男人是不一樣的。男人執迷的是控制：他們會收集郵票並細心分類、他們會收集每個睡過的女人的內褲等等。男人需要的是戰利品。


Women's obsessions are about submission; in eating disorders, it's the obsession that takes them over and controls them rather than the other way about. A sufferer from de Clerambault's Syndrome who married the object of her desire would probably be the chauvinist's ideal of the perfect wife. That pattern doesn't fit our killer. "
「然而，女人的執迷是一種臣服。以飲食失調為例，被病態的執迷全面控制與操縱的是患者本身，而非患者藉此控制他人。罹患愛情妄想症的患者如果嫁給了她所欲求的對象，應該會成為沙豬派大男人心目中最完美的嬌妻。只是那樣的心理模式並不適用於咱們的兇手。」

"EW, GROSS!!!!"

......好吧，結論是，是福是禍，總之凡事都有第一次。這種蠢事再也不會發生！

(繼續閱讀下去)

P.S. 我想任何對心理學有一點基礎認識的人都看得出來，這本小說是一本沿用了心理學元素的犯罪／推理小說，而不是嚴謹的心理學專書。對本書提到的各心理疾病症狀與診斷，大家還是看看就好嚕。