乔布斯的创造力来源于嗑药

译者 hznick

Apple founder and tech visionary Steve Jobs died on Wednesday. Jobs was heavily influenced by 1960s counterculture, and once told a reporter that taking LSD was “one of the two or three most important things” he did in his life. Can LSD really make you more creative?

苹果的创始人，富于技术远见的乔布斯，于周四逝世。乔布斯深受20世纪60年代反文化浪潮的影响，他曾亲口对一个记者说过：嗑药是他这辈子做过的”最重要的两三件事情之一”。但是，嗑药真的可以让你像乔布斯一样富于创造力吗？

Possibly. Psychology researchers conducted a lot of studies in the 1950s and ‘60s on the relationship between psychedelic drugs and creativity. Their methodology was inconsistent, though, and the results were somewhat scattered. Taken as a whole, the studies suggested that people who are creative to begin with may experience a slight increase in inspiration or insight during and after an acid trip. That's not true for non-artistic types, although psychologists did find that most participants thought they got more creative on LSD, regardless of what the tests actually showed.

答案是：有可能。20世纪50年代到60年代，心理学研究者组织了大量的实验，研究迷幻药和创造力之间的关系。但是由于这些实验的指导方法不尽相同，研究者并没有得出统一的结论。总体来说，研究者认为那些自身就有一定创造能力的人在食用迷幻药后，创造力是会有一定程度的增加。不管实验采用什么方法，嗑药确实让人更有创造力，但在那些非艺术领域的受试者身上嗑药似乎对创造力提升没有效果。

Oscar Janiger of UC-Irvine conducted the most famous study of how LSD affects artistic expression. In the late-1950s, he asked around 100 artists, writers, and musicians to make two paintings of Hopi kachina dolls, one before and one during an acid trip. An art historian later examined both sets, and noted that the acid-influenced pieces were “more abstract, symbolic, brighter, more emotional and aesthetically adventuresome, and non-representational, and they tended to use all available space on the canvas.”

加州大学欧文分校的 Oscar Janiger 主持了一个著名的实验，研究迷幻药对艺术表现的影响。在20世纪50年代末的这个实验中，他邀请了大约100个艺术家、作家以及音乐家画两幅霍皮玩偶的画，一副是在嗑药之前，一副在嗑药之后。一名艺术史学家鉴定这两幅画，专家鉴定后认为嗑药以后绘制的画“更加抽象、有象征意义、色彩更加明亮、更富有感情色彩并且富有创新精神，更加标新立异，而且大都把画布上所有可用的空间全部使用掉。”

Psychiatrist Louis Berlin conducted a much smaller study in 1955, administering acid to four graphic artists. Fellow artists found the work they produced on the drug to be more creative than their sober work. (Berlin had a hard time getting them to work at the peak of the trip, though.) Many other researchers conducted studies with similar results.

精神病学家 Louis Berlin 在1955年主持了一个相对较小的实验，研究4个画家对于迷幻药的反应。这几个画家的同行发现嗑药以后的作品比清醒时候的作品更有创造力。（这几个画家嗑药以后， Louis Berlin 费了大力气才让他们专心作画。）其他研究者做过类似的实验，也得出了类似的结论。 

Most of the tests on ordinary people—if that’s a fair term for graduate students—disappointed psychedelic drug advocates. Two studies published in 1967 showed no statistically significant improvement on creativity tests either during or after an LSD trip. The studies measured creativity with a battery of games. Subjects were given three unrelated words, and the researcher asked for the fourth word that connected them. (Sort of like the The $10,000 Pyramid.) Participants were also asked to perceive a hidden image in a complicated set of lines, and make a design out of a set of colored tiles. In one of the studies, subjects had to list alternative uses for a household item. For example, an iron could be used to press a shirt, bludgeon an intruder, or grill a cheese sandwich. Many of the participants told the researchers that they were more creative at work during the six months that followed their acid trip, even though their test scores were unchanged.

不过，如果受试者是普通人——这样说大学生应该不为过吧——实验的结果就不太乐观了。1967年公布的两个实验结果显示，嗑药前后受试者的创造力测试成绩没什么不同。实验通过一系列的游戏来测量创造力。研究者向受试者展示三个不相关的词语，要求受试者另外说出一个跟这三个都相关的词语。受试者还需要从一堆复杂的线条中找出隐藏的图像，并用彩色的线条把图像绘制出来。在一项测试中，受试者要列出一个家用电器其他可能的用途。例如，熨斗可以用来熨平T恤之外，还可以作为自卫的武器，或者用来烤奶油三明治。在6个月的实验期间内，尽管很多受试者表示他们觉得自己在工作中的创造力确实提升了，但是实验结果显示，受试者的测试成绩并没有什么变化。

It’s difficult to draw any firm conclusions from the LSD and creativity research. The dosages varied between studies, and the setting of the trip seemed to affect the outcome. (Many reports went into some detail on the surroundings: “The drug sessions were held in a large, tastefully decorated room specially designed to enhance the drug experience. It contained couches, rugs, flowers, pictures, books, an aquarium, and art objects. Music was played during most of the session.”) It’s also extremely difficult to measure creativity. Modern researchers’ preferred tool, the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, gained wide acceptance just as the LSD studies were winding down. That test requires subjects to imagine the causes and effects of a picture, conceive of improvements to a toy, and play a game called “just suppose,” in which the researchers present a peculiar hypothetical and the participant monologues about its potential implications (e.g., What if people no longer had to sleep?).

从以上的这些研究中，很难对嗑药与创造力的关系得出一个明确的结论。迷幻药的剂量以及实验过程的设置都会影响实验的结果。（很多报告中透露了一些实验的细节：“实验大部分都是在专门为实验精心布置、环境高雅的房间里展开的，房间的陈设大都是为了增强迷幻药的反应。房间里摆放了沙发、书籍、花卉、照片、地毯、水族馆和艺术品。实验过程中一直播放着音乐。”）另外，测量创造力的大小本身也是非常困难的。现代的研究者偏好一些测试工具，托兰斯创造性测试就在迷幻药的实验中广泛应用。这个测试方法中，研究者向受试者提供一些假设的场景或者一些关键的提示，要求受试者想象在这些场景和提示下事情会如何发展。（比如说，如果人类不需要睡眠会发生什么？）

Despite the relative paucity of rigorous scientific data, Steve Jobs—who once suggested that Microsoft products would be better if Bill Gates “had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger"—is far from alone in his belief. Francis Crick reportedly claimed to have envisioned the structure of DNA during an acid trip. John Lennon attributed the Beatles’ album Revolver to the group’s acid use.