象牙塔尖的忧郁——博士生抑郁体验的叙事研究

Depression on the Top of the Ivory Tower:A Narrative Study of Doctoral Candidates’ Experience of Depression

在世界范围内,抑郁已经成为一种时代病症,象牙塔尖也未能幸免。高等学校博士生抑郁风险不仅是一个精神医学或心理学领域的论题,也关乎我国高层次创新人才的培养质量。通过对正在或曾在读博期间受抑郁困扰的博士生进行深度访谈,借助网络搜集博士生读博期间抑郁体验的记录,深描这一群体的抑郁体验,探索抑郁问题背后的结构性、制度性和文化根源。象牙塔作为一个地方性的道德系统,内隐着博士生应遵守的“读博时钟”和道德承诺。受抑郁困扰的博士生遭遇了学术生涯中的种种风险和不确定性,对沉没成本有着复杂的、极其个人化的道德感知,被学业失败的恐惧和危机所折磨,难以过上一种有尊严的道德生活。他们寻求疗愈的过程经历了从一元到多元、从线性到复杂时间观的转向,高度依赖重要他人的理解和支持。道德秩序的破碎与重建是理解博士生抑郁体验发生及疗愈机制的关键。对博士生抑郁风险的关注需要理解他们的道德处境,突破不利于潜心研究、盲目追求成果数量的培养和评价制度,重塑健康的学术文化,为博士生的学术创新提供宽松和支持性的学术土壤。

Depression has become a disease of the age around the globe,and college students on the top of the ivory tower suffer from it unexceptionally. Instead of being simply a research topic in the field of psychiatry or psychology,the risk of depression from doctoral candidates in colleges and universities is closely related to the educational quality of high-level innovative talents in China. This study conducted in-depth interviews with some doctoral candidates who are suffering from depression,or those with doctorate degrees who suffered from depression during their doctoral studies,and visited the Internet to collect the records or descriptions of their experience of depression,thus giving a deep description of this group,and probing into the structural,institutional and cultural roots of depression. As a localized moral system,the ivory tower implies a "doctoral clock" and moral commitments for doctoral candidates. Plagued by depression,they encountered various risks and uncertainties in their academic career. They have complex and personal moral perceptions of the sunk cost of doctoral studies. Tortured by the fear and risks from academic failure,they have difficulty leading a dignified moral life. During their recovery,they experienced changes from monistic values to pluralistic values,and from a linear concept of time to a complex one,and they were highly dependent on the understanding and support from significant others. Fragmentation and reconstruction of moral order is the key to understanding their experience of depression and the mechanism for their recovery. To reduce their risks of depression,we need to understand their moral situation,reflect upon the education and evaluation system that blindly follows quantitative standards but does not help them concentrate on their research,reshape a healthy academic culture,and provide a flexible and supportive environment for their academic innovation.