注：snowflake generation（雪花一代）指2010年成年的那代人，与前几代人相比，适应能力更差，更没耐心，抗压能力不强。之所以被称作“雪花一代”，是因为这类人有着和雪花一般的“玻璃心”，经不起打击像雪花一样易融化。

Experienced academics at Oxford University are being offered counselling so they can avoid being traumatised by their research. 

Critics say the move is the latest example of pandering to the emotionally delicate ‘snowflake generation’ who are over-sensitive to difficult situations. 

But university chiefs say the aim is to avoid ‘vicarious trauma’ for postgraduates researching fields such as war, genocide, natural disaster, domestic violence, imprisonment and sexual abuse. 

During two two-hour sessions last term, participants – many of whom would do teaching as part of their work – learned how to maintain their ‘personal and professional wellbeing’ despite facing ‘exceptional emotional demands’ from hearing about troublesome experiences. 

The move follows the introduction of ‘trigger warnings’ alerting students when lectures might include challenging material, and ‘safe spaces’ where controversial opinions cannot be voiced – moves which have been derided as over-sensitive and politically correct. 

Of the new counselling sessions, Professor Alan Smithers, an education expert from Buckingham University, said: ‘You would have thought that if people were likely to suffer from secondary trauma, they wouldn’t be in that line of work. 

'I cannot see why Oxford should use the time to put this on, but perhaps there is so much health-and-safety legislation around these days that the university might feel it has to protect itself from being sued.’ 

And sociology professor Frank Furedi, from Kent University, said: ‘Postgraduates are being treated as emotionally fragile patients who require therapeutic intervention to function.’ 

Earlier this year, The Mail on Sunday revealed that Oxford law students destined to be barristers and judges were told they could skip lectures covering violent cases if they feared the content would be too ‘distressing’. 

Archaeology students at University College London were also given permission to walk out of classes if they found them disturbing, and a lecturer at another London university ‘flagged’ her lectures on the Roman poet Ovid because his work depicts rape. 

Oxford University said that the new trauma workshops were open to anyone who might need them, but were primarily for graduate students, usually in social sciences, ‘doing research involving fieldwork in dangerous and emotionally distressing environments’. 

A spokesman said: ‘Our vicarious trauma workshops were designed for researchers whose work involved traumatic situations such as conflict zones, and whose own safety may have been in jeopardy. 

'The health and wellbeing of staff and students working in these areas is a priority for the university.

'It is important that researchers are also aware of the effects that their research can have on them and their personal and family life.’ 

'Therapy culture’ is most prevalent in American universities, where students have demanded warnings before hearing about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, which both feature suicidal themes. 

牛津大学担心本校有经验的学者在研究中心灵受伤，将为其提供心理咨询服务。

“雪花一代”往往在困境前过度敏感，批评者认为，这项举措正是向情感脆弱的他们妥协。

但牛津主管人员称，这项举措旨在防止研究战争、种族灭绝、自然灾害、家庭暴力、关押监禁和性虐待等领域的研究生们遭受“替代性创伤（想象别人的痛苦而给自己带来的创伤痛苦）”。

上学期，牛津开设了两节两小时的课程，参与者——其中许多人工作的一部分就是授课——学习如何在听到痛苦的经历时直面“特殊的情感需求”，保持“个人与职业幸福感”。

该咨询课程进行了课堂改革。当课程涉及到刺激性内容时，将会有“触发警告”提醒学生。而且，在“安全区”中，不允许发表争议性观点。这些规定被嘲笑为“过度敏感”和“政治正确”。

对于这项新的咨询课程，白金汉大学的教育学专家艾伦•史密瑟斯教授说：“你可能会觉得如果人们容易遭受二次创伤，他们从一开始就不会在这一行工作。”

“我不知道为什么牛津要花时间开设这个项目，可能是如今英国有太多健康与安全法规，这项举措可以使牛津避免被指控。”

肯特大学的社会学教授弗兰克•弗莱迪说：“研究生被视为是情感脆弱的病人，需要治疗性干预才能正常工作。”

今年年初，《星期日邮报》曾报道称，毕业后将成为律师或法官的牛津大学法学系学生被告知，如果他们害怕课程中暴力案件的内容太残忍，他们可以跳过这些课程不上。

同样，伦敦大学学院考古学的学生若认为课程令他们不适，有权走出课堂。另一所伦敦的大学教授删去了有关罗马诗人奥维德的课程，因为他的作品中描绘了强奸的景象。

牛津大学声称，该新型创伤咨询对任何有需要的人开放，但会优先考虑研究生。这些研究生通常研究社会科学，“研究领域涉及那些危险残忍的环境”。

发言人称：“我们的替代式创伤咨询是为那些研究领域涉及战争冲突区等地的痛苦场景，可能危及自身心理健康的研究人员设计准备的。”

“学校应优先保障研究这些领域的老师和学生的健康和幸福。”

“重要的是，研究人员也应该意识到他们的研究会对自身以及个人及家庭生活带来的影响。”

“治疗文化”在美国的大学中最为流行。美国大学生曾要求，如果他们要听弗朗西斯•斯科特•菲茨杰拉德的《了不起的盖茨比》或是弗吉尼亚•伍尔夫的《黛洛维夫人》等包含自杀主题的课程，他们必须事先得到警告。

来源：每日邮报