Family Background 家庭背景 We can stop for a moment at this point to review briefly the essential data of the score or so of years that preceded his coming to analysis. Jim was born in a large midwestern city in the years following the World War II. He was the third of three sons born to his parents. His mother and father were both of Jewish extraction. His father owned his own business, a small manufacturing company. The family struggled along through difficult times financially, and it was not until after the war that the father's company took hold and became a relatively successful venture. Thus it was not until Jimmy was about five years old that the family moved from a relatively poor section of the city to a more comfortable middle-class neighborhood. There was a definite turning point in the family history from the hard times to the better times that followed the war. Consequently the family situation that Jimmy experienced when he was growing up had a quite different flavor from that experienced by his older brothers. 在此，我们可以暂时停下来，简要回顾一下吉姆在接受分析治疗前的十几年里的基本情况。吉姆出生于二战后美国中西部的一座大城市。他是父母的三个儿子中的老三。他的父母都是犹太人后裔。他的父亲经营着一家自己的小制造公司。一家人曾经历过一段经济困难的时期，直到战后，父亲的公司才站稳脚跟，成为一家相对成功的企业。因此，直到吉姆大约五岁的时候，他们一家才从城市相对贫困的地区搬到了一个更加舒适的中产阶级社区。家族历史中存在着一个明确的转折点，即从战前的艰难时期转向战后的美好时光。因此，吉姆成长过程中的家庭环境与他的哥哥们所经历的大不相同。 In the early years the family lived in a more-or-less ghetto atmosphere. They lived in an almost exclusively Jewish neighborhood. The family was closely surrounded by relatives. The grandparents—the mother's parents—lived nearby and an aunt and uncle lived in the flat upstairs. 早年，这家人生活在一个类似贫民窟的环境中。他们住在一个几乎全是犹太人的社区里。家人被亲戚们紧紧环绕。外祖父母——也就是母亲的父母——住在附近，而一位姨姨和舅舅则住在楼上的公寓里。 The extended family group was provided by mother's family. Father's family had been disrupted early. His father had died when father was quite young and his mother had abandoned the family. Consequently father had little to do with his own family of origin. Jimmy's own family, however, provided a nucleus around which the other elements in the extended family seemed to cluster. The father was a shrewd businessman and through the years had been consistently able to provide his family with a steady if not comfortable standard of living. He was also the support and provider for the grandparents and in part for his wife's brother's family. He was generous in giving to them even through the hard times. When his business had begun to flourish, the father was able to provide a more comfortable standard of living. 母亲的家族构成了这个大家庭。父亲的家族很早就支离破碎了。他[患者的父亲]的父亲[即患者的爷爷]在他[即患者的父亲]很小的时候就去世了，母亲[即患者的奶奶]也抛弃了家庭。因此，父亲[指患者的父亲]与自己的原生家庭几乎没有什么联系。然而，吉米自己的小家庭却成了这个大家庭的核心，其他成员似乎都围绕着这个小家庭。父亲是个精明的商人，多年来一直能让家人过上虽不富裕但还算稳定的生活。他也是外祖父母的主要支柱和供养者，还在一定程度上资助着妻子娘家的兄弟。即使在困难时期，他也慷慨地给予他们帮助。当他的生意开始兴旺起来时，父亲能让家人过上更加舒适的生活。 The grandparents were a revered elderly couple. The grandmother was a gentle, sympathetic, and kindly old woman. Jimmy felt very close to her and recalled warm feelings toward her from his childhood. He regarded her as the real source of strength in the family. Grandfather was a reserved, stoical, revered elder of the community—white-bearded, quiet, patriarchal. Jimmy held his grandfather in awe. But he felt a great distance between himself and the revered old man. He struggled to find ways of relating to the imposing figure of his prophetlike grandfather but never with any great success. 外祖父母是一对受人尊敬的老年夫妇。外祖母是一位温柔、富有同情心且和蔼可亲的老妇人。吉米觉得她非常亲切，回忆起童年时对她就怀有温暖的感情。他认为外祖母是家中真正的力量源泉。外祖父则是社区里一位沉默寡言、坚忍克己、德高望重的长者——他留着白胡子，性格安静，颇具家长风范。吉米对外祖父满怀敬畏。但他感觉自己与这位受人尊敬的老人之间存在着很大的距离。他努力寻找与这位如先知般威严的外祖父相处的方式，但始终没有太大的成功。 While Jimmy's father was the major source of support for all these people, he was relatively passive and permissive at home. He left the management of the home to Jimmy's mother. Mother was the dominating and intrusively controlling Jewish mother. When Philip Roth's novel Portnoy's Complaint came out, Jimmy remarked any number of times on what a strong similarity there was between Portnoy's mother and his own. While Jimmy saw his father as weak, ineffectual, compliant, and as giving in to whatever demands were made on him and never having his own way in family matters, he saw his mother as a dominating, controlling, intrusive, undercutting, critical, devaluing. One of the constant enigmas for Jimmy was how his father could be so shrewd and successful in business and respected in the community when he was such a weak and ineffectual person at home. 虽然吉米的父亲是所有人主要的经济支柱，但在家里，他的态度相对被动且宽容。他把家庭的管理权交给了吉米的母亲。母亲是一个占有欲强、喜欢干涉控制的犹太母亲。当菲利普·罗斯的小说《波特诺伊的怨诉》出版时，吉米多次评论说，波特诺伊的母亲和他的母亲有多么相似。在吉米看来，父亲软弱无能、逆来顺受，对别人的要求总是妥协退让，在家庭事务中从来没有自己的主见；而母亲则是一个喜欢主宰一切、控制欲强、爱干涉、喜欢暗中破坏、批评不断、贬低他人的人。对吉米来说，一直让他感到困惑不解的是，父亲在家里如此软弱无能，但在商业上却如此精明成功，在社区里也备受尊敬，这究竟是怎么做到的。