<blockquote>
  <p>Friedrich Nietzsche: "Gott ist tot."</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Well-known translation: <code>上帝已死。</code></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Stephen Hawking: "Philosophy is dead."</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Well-known translation: <code>哲学已死。</code></p>

<p>Thus I believe the best translation for "Psychology is dead" should be <code>心理学已死。</code></p>

<p>PS: Of course, without context, one might hardly understand the meaning, but any other translation won't do either. So an idiom-like expression fits.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-22T09:08:57.333Z
@ArchyWilhes You're welcome :)
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-22T09:09:08.783Z
answer agrees with iciba 翻译：心理学已死
user6065
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-22T09:11:51.967Z
@user6065 is iciba 翻译 good (say, vs google translation [in general])? Does it get things right most of the time?
Archy Will He 何魏奇
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-22T14:53:05.913Z
@ArchyWilhes, apparently better than google, most of the time although not completely right, its results could be used as a starting point to be corrected as needed
user6065
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-22T15:43:23.707Z
@user6065 Cool. Great info. Thanks.
Archy Will He 何魏奇
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-22T09:05:48.880Z
2015-12-22T09:05:48.880Z
Stan
<p>Expressions such as <em>psychology is dead</em> in</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>A cognitive scientist once told me that psychology is dead.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>are examples of personification, in this case, to convey the idea that psychology is using an outdated paradigm to study how the brain works.</p>

<p>How should I translate that into Chinese? I once said to a relative of mine who speaks Chinese</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>有个认知学家告诉过我，心理学已经死亡。</p>
</blockquote>

<p>and he couldn't understand what I meant until I told him about the re-interpration of the Stanford marshmallow experiment.</p>

<p>So what are some better translation for the expression "psychology is dead"? An alternative I can thought of would be "心理学已经过时" but that would mean removing the figure of speech from the original expression, and I'd like to avoid that.</p>

<translation>
a better translation for the expression "psychology is dead"
# a better translation for the expression "psychology is dead"

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-12-22)

Expressions such as *psychology is dead* in

> A cognitive scientist once told me that psychology is dead.

are examples of personification, in this case, to convey the idea that psychology is using an outdated paradigm to study how the brain works.

How should I translate that into Chinese? I once said to a relative of mine who speaks Chinese

> 有个认知学家告诉过我，心理学已经死亡。

and he couldn't understand what I meant until I told him about the re-interpration of the Stanford marshmallow experiment.

So what are some better translation for the expression "psychology is dead"? An alternative I can thought of would be "心理学已经过时" but that would mean removing the figure of speech from the original expression, and I'd like to avoid that.

**Tags:** translation


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2015-12-22. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

> Friedrich Nietzsche: "Gott ist tot."

Well-known translation: `上帝已死。`

> Stephen Hawking: "Philosophy is dead."

Well-known translation: `哲学已死。`

Thus I believe the best translation for "Psychology is dead" should be `心理学已死。`

PS: Of course, without context, one might hardly understand the meaning, but any other translation won't do either. So an idiom-like expression fits.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: @ArchyWilhes You're welcome :)  
> **username_2**: answer agrees with iciba 翻译：心理学已死  
> **username_0**: @username_2 is iciba 翻译 good (say, vs google translation [in general])? Does it get things right most of the time?  
> **username_2**: @ArchyWilhes, apparently better than google, most of the time although not completely right, its results could be used as a starting point to be corrected as needed  
> **username_0**: @username_2 Cool. Great info. Thanks.  

---

