She was in her sophomore year, her mother back in Seoul was ill, her father had lost his job and she was depressed and having panic attacks so severe that she went to the emergency room for chest pains.

海莉．金來自南韓，在「羅格斯大學」的新布倫威克校園攻讀藥劑學，她發現自己站在學校的心理衛生中心門前，既怕走進去，也怕走開。

她目前讀大二，在首爾的母親病了，父親也失業在家，她心情沮喪，且幾度恐慌發作，嚴重到得去急診室，因胸痛就診。

“I was hesitating right in front of the door,” said Kim, 20. But she went through because, “I was desperate for help.”

It is not new that the number of college students who say they are facing mental- and emotional-health troubles has been steadily growing. What is new is that colleges and universities are increasingly focused on trying to understand, through rigorous research, what interventions work best and for the broadest swath of students.

20歲的金說：「我就在門前猶豫著。」不過，她最後還是走了進去，因為「我迫切需要協助」。

表示自己面臨心理和情緒健康問題的大學生人數持續增加，這不是新鮮事。新鮮的是，美國的學院和大學日益著力於設法瞭解，而且是透過嚴謹的研究，哪些干預措施對學生最為有效，且適合最廣泛、最多的學生。

“The fact that students are struggling with anxiety and depression is real,” said Thomas C. Shandley, dean of students for Davidson College in North Carolina. “It took a while to reach college campuses, and now it’s here.”

According to the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute annual freshman survey, conducted since 1966, a record high of 11.9 percent of the students in the 2016 incoming class reported “frequently” feeling depressed in the past year, and 13.9 percent said “there was a very good chance they would seek personal counseling in college.” And for the first time in the survey’s history, less than half (47 percent) consider their mental health to be above average relative to their peers.

北卡羅來納州大衛森學院訓導長湯瑪斯．尚德利說：「學生在焦慮和憂鬱之間掙扎是真的。它花了一段時間才進入大學校園，現在它就在這裡。」

洛杉磯加大高等教育研究所從1966年開始進行年度新生調查，根據調查結果，2016年入學班學生中，有11.9%表示過去一年中他們「經常」感到沮喪，是歷來新高，另有13.9%的學生說，「他們很可能會在大學裡尋求個人諮詢」。同時這項調查也首次顯示，認為自己心理健康狀況高於同儕平均水準的學生不到一半（僅占47%）。

In addition, the Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Penn State, which annually reports on college students receiving mental health services, found that the number who have purposely injured themselves (for instance, by cutting themselves) rose steadily to almost 26 percent in the 2015-16 school year, from 21.8 percent in 2010-11. The same upward trend was true of those who seriously considered attempting suicide — rising to 33.2 percent, up from 23.8 percent, over the same period.

A common narrative is that too many students, especially those at elite universities, are coddled products of helicopter parents who run to counselors at the first obstacle. Particularly in affluent areas, said Julie Lythcott-Haims, author of “How to Raise an Adult,” too many parents have tried to ensure that their children never run up against failure or obstacles.

“We’ve enriched the hell out of them,” she said. “They’re hardworking, but their childhood has not helped them build coping skills.”

此外，每年就大學生接受心理健康服務狀況提出報告的賓州州立大學發現，曾經自殘（如割傷自己）的學生人數逐學年上升，2015-16學年度達到將近26%，反觀2010-11學年度僅21.8%。同樣呈現上升趨勢的是認真動過自殺念頭的學生人數，同一時期從23.8%升至33.2%。

一個常見的說法是，有太多學生，尤其是精英大學的學生，是直升機父母溺愛下的產物，這些父母從遇到第一個障礙就會去找人諮商以解決問題。「如何培養成人」一書作者茱莉．李斯科特─海姆斯說，特別是富裕地區，有太多父母試圖確保他們的孩子從來不會遭遇失敗或障礙。

她說：「我們給他們太多了。他們很勤學，但是他們的童年並未能協助他們建立適應技能。」

說文解字看新聞

文／王麗娟

文章從一名大學生的憂鬱症（depression）談起，再提及直升機父母（helicopter parent）可能是導致這些大學生適應技能（coping skill）欠缺，較無法應付壓力的原因之一。

depression一般指心情沮喪，意氣消沉，在病理上，則稱為憂鬱症。憂鬱症與躁鬱症（bipolar disorder） 並不相同， 躁鬱症是重度憂鬱症之外，加上有躁症發作的疾病，兩者不能混為一談。

所謂的直升機父母（ helicopter parent），則是指過度關切子女每一個經驗和問題的父母，這些家長宛如直升機，盤旋在子女上方，隨時空降介入、照顧和保護子女，替子女解決問題。 文章稱這些父母會run to counselors，找顧問或輔導員尋求協助，run to someone 意為找上某人尋求協助，或是告訴某人某些事情。

We've enriched the hell out of them.指的是父母讓子女無所缺乏，十分充足。其中the hell out of意為「非常、很」，與You scared the hell out of me!（你嚇壞我了）用法相同。

Not long ago, a physicist at Stanford posed a rhetorical question that took me by surprise.

“Why is there so much beauty?” he asked.

Beauty was not what I was thinking the world was full of when he brought it up. The physicist, Manu Prakash, was captivated by the patterns in seawater made as starfish larvae swam about. But he did put his finger on quite a puzzle: Why is there beauty? Why is there any beauty at all?

不久前，史丹福大學一位物理學家以反詰語氣提出了這麼個問題，令我為之愕然。

「這世界為何如此美不勝收？」

他提出問題時，我腦中想到充滿這個世界的，並非美這東西。這位物理學家瑪努．普拉卡許被水中海星幼蟲游動時形成的圖案給迷住了。不過，他確實指出了一大迷惑：美為何要存在？為什麼非要有美不可？

Richard O. Prum, a Yale ornithologist and evolutionary biologist, offers a partial answer in a new book, “The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World — and Us.” He writes about one kind of beauty — the oh-is-he/she-hot variety — and mostly as it concerns birds, not people. And his answer is, in short: That’s what female birds like.

This won’t help with understanding the appeal of fluid dynamics or the night sky, but Prum is attempting to revive and expand on a view that Charles Darwin held, one that sounds revolutionary even now.

耶魯大學的鳥類和演化生物學家理查．Ｏ．普朗姆在他的新書《美的演化：達爾文被遺忘的擇偶理論如何塑造動物世界，以及我們》中，提供了部分解答。他寫的是一種美，噢─他／她─是不是讓人很哈那種美，且大多數是寫這些，這本書與鳥類有關，不是人類。他的答案，簡單來說：那是雌鳥喜歡的。

這個答案無助於我們理解流體動力學或夜空的魅力所在，但普朗姆試圖振興並擴大查爾斯．達爾文所持的一項觀點，即使是現在，這個觀點聽來仍是革命性十足。

The idea is that when they are choosing mates — and in birds it’s mostly the females who choose — animals make choices that can only be called aesthetic. They perceive a kind of beauty. Prum defines it as “co-evolved attraction.” They desire that beauty, often in the form of fancy feathers, and their desires change the course of evolution.

All biologists recognize that birds choose mates, but the mainstream view now is that the mate chosen is the fittest in terms of health and good genes. Any ornaments or patterns simply reflect signs of fitness. Such utility is objective. Prum’s — and Darwin’s — notion of beauty is something more subjective, with no other meaning than its aesthetic appeal.

這個觀點是，擇偶時，動物所做的只能稱為基於美感的選擇，而鳥類主要是由雌鳥做選擇。牠們覺察到一種美。普魯姆將它定義為「共同演化的吸引力」。牠們渴望那種美，通常是以華麗羽毛的形式呈現，而牠們的渴望改變了演化的過程。

所有生物學家都同意鳥類會擇偶，但是現今的主流觀點認為，被選中的另一半是健康狀態和基因優異性最合適的。一切裝飾或圖案只是反映身強體健的徵兆。這種功能性的觀點是客觀的。普魯姆和達爾文對美的看法則屬於較主觀的，除了美感的吸引力別無意義。

Prum wants to push evolutionary biologists to re-examine their assumptions about utility and beauty, objectivity and subjectivity. But he also wants to reach the public with a message that is clear whether or not you dip into the technical aspects of evolution. The yearning to pick your own mate is not something that began with humans, he says. It can be found in ducks, pheasants and other creatures.

For Prum, at least, there is a partial answer to the question posed by Prakash. Why are birds beautiful?

“Birds are beautiful because they’re beautiful to themselves.”

普朗姆有意促使演化生物學家重新審視他們關於功能性與美麗，或主觀與客觀的假設。但他同時希望向公眾傳達一個訊息，而不論你是否沉浸在演化的技術層面，這訊息都十分清楚。他說，渴望選擇自己的伴侶並非從人類開始。鴨子、野雞和其他動物同樣有這種渴望。

對普朗姆而言，最起碼，普拉卡許所提的問題已有部分的答案。為什麼鳥兒是美麗的？

「鳥兒美麗，是因為牠們在自己眼中是美麗的。」