If the sound of cricket is the thwack of leather upon willow, is the footballing equivalent the crunch of enamel upon scapula? On Tuesday evening, during a World Cup group match, Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez appeared to sink his teeth into the shoulder of Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini.

如果说代表板球的声音是球棒击打皮革的脆响，那么代表足球的声音是不是牙齿釉质与肩胛骨碰撞发出的嘎吱声？上周二晚，在世界杯小组赛中，乌拉圭前锋路易斯•苏亚雷斯(Luis Suárez)看上去咬了意大利后卫乔治•基耶利尼(Giorgio Chiellini)的肩膀。

While others seemed lost for words, former England footballer Ian Wright offered the pithiest punditry: “I feel sorry for [Suárez] because he’s obviously not in control of something . . . he needs help.” Having considered incriminating footage of Chiellini’s bruised shoulder, plus two previous offences of snacking on opponents, the sport’s world governing body has dished out a nine-match international ban, a four- month ban on all football and a fine of SFr100,000. He will not even be allowed to enter a stadium.

对于此事，其他人似乎都无语了，不过前英格兰球员伊恩•赖特(Ian Wright)发表了精辟的点评：“我为（苏亚雷斯）感到遗憾，因为显然有什么东西是他无法控制的……他需要看医生。”考虑到基耶利尼肩膀牙印的录像证据，外加苏亚雷斯两次咬对方球员的前科，国际足联对他处以禁赛9场国际比赛、4个月禁止参加一切足球活动、外加10万瑞郎罚款的处罚。他将连体育场馆都进不了。

Suarez’s toothsome savagery appears to be almost primal behaviour of a kind more often associated with wayward toddlers than millionaire sportsmen. Inexplicable, uncontrollable urges live on the dark side of human nature. While Suárez’s bizarre urge to bite emerges only occasionally, apparently in response to extreme frustration on the pitch, some people are dogged by strange urges during every waking hour. In the case of obsessive-compulsive disorder , a compulsion emerges in ugly tandem with an obsession. An obsession with germs, for example, can lead to a compulsion to wash hands. Some sufferers hoard.

苏亚雷斯咬人之举，几乎像是蹒跚学步的任性小孩才会有的原始举动，而不像是身价百万的运动员可能做出的事情。无法解释、无法控制的冲动存在于人性的阴暗面中。苏亚雷斯诡异的咬人冲动只是偶然出现，而且显然是他在球场上情绪极度烦躁所致，然而，有些人在醒着的每一刻都受到各种诡异冲动的折磨。强迫症(OCD)，是一种强迫思维和强迫冲动顽固交缠的病症。比如说，有关细菌的强迫思维，可能导致洗手的强迫冲动。还有人患有囤积癖。

Keeping hold of stuff and avoiding excessive dirt may have given our ancestors a survival advantage; for this reason, some scientists speculate that OCD results when these brain circuits devoted to survival tip into overdrive. About one in 100 people has OCD proper – we are talking about mental illness here, not quirky neuroticism – but the true incidence is suspected to be at least double that because many are too ashamed to confess to a fragile mind.

拥有东西、以及保持清洁，或许让我们的祖先有更大优势生存下来。因此，一些科学家猜测，当专注于生存的大脑回路占据主导，就会导致强迫症。100人中就有1个真正的强迫症患者（这里说的是一种精神疾病，而不是什么古怪的神经质表现），但有人怀疑真实发病率至少比这高一倍，因为太多人羞于承认自己精神有问题。

Of course, not all thoughts become obsessions. The average person is said to have about 4,000 thoughts a day, and it is normal to harbour some that are ridiculous, irrational and scurrilous. The rich and famous are as afflicted as anyone else by odd thoughts and peculiar impulses. Winston Churchill avoided travelling by ship for fear he would jump into the sea. He had the good sense to disclose it to his doctor: “I’ve no desire to quit this world but thoughts, desperate thoughts, come into my head.”

当然，不是所有念头都会演化为强迫思维。据说，普通人每天会产生约4000个念头，有一些荒谬、疯狂、低俗的念头也是正常的。有钱人和名人跟普通人一样，也逃不开古怪念头和诡异冲动的折磨。温斯顿•邱吉尔(Winston Churchill)不敢坐船，因为担心自己可能会跳进海里。他明智地去看了医生：“我没有轻生的愿望，但这些念头，疯狂的念头，钻进了我的脑子。”

Hans Christian Andersen, the spinner of fairy tales, was terrified by the prospect of being buried alive; his taphephobia (“fear of the grave”) led to him placing a note at his bedside each night explaining that he was not dead but asleep. Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite whose fortune was used to start the eponymous prizes, dreaded the same, leaving instructions that, on his death, his veins should be emptied and his corpse cremated.

童话作家安徒生(Hans Christian Andersen)害怕被活埋。活埋恐惧症导致他每晚在床边放一张纸条，告诉别人，他只是睡着了，并没有死。炸药发明者、遗产用于创立诺贝尔奖的阿尔弗雷德•诺贝尔(Alfred Nobel)也有这种恐惧症。他要求别人在他去世后，把他血管中的血放干、然后火化。

All of these cases, plus the Ethiopian schoolgirl who felt compelled to consume a mud wall of her house, are documented in The Man Who Couldn’t Stop, a moving book on OCD by David Adam. For the past 20 years, he has grappled with an irrational fear of being infected with HIV. He describes the all-consuming grip of a compulsive urge as having “nowhere to hide and nothing to reason with. To resist a compulsion with willpower alone is to hold back an avalanche by melting the snow with a candle.”

所有上述案例，都被记述在大卫•亚当(David Adam)那本关于强迫症的震撼之作《停不下来的人》(The Man Who Couldn’t Stop)中。书中还记述了一个埃塞俄比亚女生的案例，她有吃土强迫症，从她家的一堵土墙上抠土吃。过去20年来，亚当一直在与担心感染HIV的恐惧搏斗，这种恐惧毫无理性可言。他说，自己被一种强烈冲动牢牢攥住，“无处躲藏，也无法用理性说服自己。仅凭意志力抵挡这种无法抗拒的冲动，就好像靠蜡烛融化冰雪来抵挡铺天盖地而来的雪崩”。

Mr Adam eventually sought help after becoming a father and realising he was in danger of infecting his daughter with his obsession. Bill Brenner, a technology writer and author of The OCD Diaries blog, once told Forbes magazine, the mental condition “is kind of like a dark versus light power. When you are able to manage its darker elements, the drive it gives you can let you accomplish big things.”

当上父亲以后，亚当终于去看了医生，因为他意识到，自己可能会把强迫症传染给女儿。科技写手、“强迫症日记”博主比尔•布伦纳(Bill Brenner)一度告诉《福布斯》(Forbes)杂志，这种精神疾病“有点像一种有阴阳两面的力量。当你能管住阴暗面，这种力量将赋予你铸就辉煌的干劲。”

Whatever the machinations of the Suárez brain, it has orchestrated great things. He is a goal conjuror of extraordinary talent, and one of the most celebrated players in club football. He is also one of the richest: Liverpool pay him a reported £200,000 a week.

无论苏亚雷斯的大脑在搞什么鬼，这个大脑指挥他铸就了辉煌。他是才华横溢的进球魔术师，也是俱乐部比赛中最著名的球员之一。他也跻身最有钱的球员之列：据报道利物浦付给他每周20万英镑。

Suárez does not normally go around biting people but, when under extreme pressure, he appears to struggle against a “darker element”. Unless he learns to restrain it, he will not be able to freely exercise the urge for which he is most admired: scoring goals.

苏亚雷斯一般不会随便到处咬人，但在极端压力下，他似乎无法管住内心的“阴暗面”。除非他能学会克制这种冲动，否则他将无法自由释放他最为人敬佩的一种冲动：进球。