????這正是我們了解伯克曼的方式：他是一位好奇心重、四處翻找論據(jù)的記者，而不是一位重生的大師——他講述了自己陷入和擺脫痛苦的經(jīng)歷，以此證明他所宣揚的自我改善方式的確有效。他在每個章節(jié)中都講述了一個人的故事，這些人畢其職業(yè)生涯，探求一條通往幸福的消極路徑。每次訪談中，他總是以清晰的文筆凸顯那些使得通往幸福的消極路徑難以付諸行動的人性特點。比如，在一個論述如何坦然接受失敗的章節(jié)中，他直言不諱地寫道：“完美主義，究其根本而言，是一種受恐懼感驅(qū)動的抗?fàn)帯Ｍ鶚O端里說，它是一種使人筋疲力盡，時刻讓人承受重壓的生活方式。”

????在論述設(shè)定太多目標(biāo)所導(dǎo)致的危險性的章節(jié)中，伯克曼講述了一位咨詢師的故事。這位名叫史蒂夫?夏皮羅的咨詢師是他在西村（West Village，西村是具有反叛精神的各類先鋒藝術(shù)家的匯聚之地——譯注）一家酒吧中遇到的。夏皮羅經(jīng)常在美國各地主持各類以商界人士為受眾、探討如何自助的研討會。不同于大多數(shù)咨詢師，夏皮羅建議職場人士不要為自己設(shè)定太多的目標(biāo)。夏皮羅因為過于迷戀職務(wù)晉升、最終導(dǎo)致破裂之后悟出了這個道理。他聲稱，一旦放棄你為自己的人生和事業(yè)設(shè)定的5年規(guī)劃，你就會馬上把更多的注意力和精力放在當(dāng)下的事務(wù)上。很快，你就可以花更多的時間與家人在一起，你的工作表現(xiàn)也將大有改觀。

????與那些更典型的自助大師一樣，夏皮羅的方式旨在讓人們的生活更幸福，更充實。這也是夏皮羅之所以堪稱本書一個完美隱喻的原因所在。《解毒劑》一書聲稱，追尋幸福將使人筋疲力盡，失望連連。然而，正如夏皮羅可以在渴望成功的商界氛圍中，游刃有余地使用PowerPoint幻燈片向公司高管們展示其理論一樣，《解毒劑》一書完全可以毫不唐突地擺放在巴諾連鎖書店（Barnes and Noble）的自助類書架上。畢竟，伯克曼也并非不屑于為讀者提出他的建議。正如他在本書后記中所言，“讀者可以把（之前章節(jié)中提出的）這些建議視為一個可身體力行的工具包。”

????然而，與許多撰寫自助類書籍的作者不同的是，伯克曼并沒有就如何獲得健康、財富和幸福提供一套簡明扼要，可分為12步完成的處方。煞費苦心地鋪設(shè)了各類通往幸福的替代路徑（猶如佛教徒般的冥思，拒絕設(shè)定目標(biāo)，接受死亡的必然性 ）之后，他最終為自己無力整理出一套簡單明了的操作指南而沮喪。他的語言開始變得有些笨拙：“通往幸福的消極路徑，是一條通往一個不一樣的目的地的路徑。說這條路徑就是目的地，或許更有道理吧？這些事情是非常難以用言語來表達的，（消極思維）的精神勢必決定了我們不要太過努力地做這些事情。”

????This is how we get to know Burkeman -- as a curious journalist rooting around for an argument, not as a born-again guru who uses his own story of suffering and healing to prove the validity of his personal brand of self-improvement. In each chapter he sits down with someone who has dedicated his or her professional life to exploring a particular negative path to happiness. He punctuates each interview with clear prose about human traits that make a negative path to happiness difficult to adopt. For example, in a chapter on methods for embracing failure, he writes bluntly that "perfectionism, at bottom, is fear-driven striving … [at] its extremes, it is an exhausting and permanently stressful way to live."

????In the chapter on the danger of setting too many goals, Burkeman recounts meeting a man named Steve Shapiro in a bar in the West Village. Shapiro is a consultant who travels around the country hosting self-help seminars for business audiences. Unlike most consultants, Shapiro preaches against goal setting. He found this calling at a time when his obsession with career advancement had ruined his marriage. He argues that once you abandon the five-year-plan approach to life and business, you immediately have more focus and energy for the present moment. Pretty soon you are spending more time with your family and performing better at work.

????Like more typical self-help gurus, Shapiro's method is designed to make your life happier and more productive. Which is why Shapiro is a perfect metaphor for this book. The Antidote argues that pursuing happiness leads to exhaustion and disappointment. Still, just as Shapiro is at home in a success-hungry business environment with his boardroom seminars and PowerPoint presentations, The Antidote is at home in the self-help section at Barnes and Noble. After all, Burkeman is not above making suggestions. In his Epilogue he offers, "You can treat these ideas [presented in the previous chapters] as a toolkit."

????Unlike many self-help authors, however, Burkeman doesn't offer neat, 12-step prescriptions for health, wealth, or happiness. After painstakingly establishing the various negative paths to happiness -- Buddhist meditation, rejection of goals, acceptance of death's inevitability -- he winds up discouraged by his inability to wrap things up neatly. His language becomes clunky: "The negative path to happiness … [is] a path to a different kind of destination. Or maybe it makes more sense to say that the path is the destination? These things are excruciatingly hard to put into words, and the spirit of … [negative thinking] surely dictates that we do not struggle too hard to do so."