Collecting must be one of the most varied of human activities, and it's one that many of us psychologists find fascinating. 收藏是人类的重要活动之一，并且许多心理学家认为这是一种非常吸引人的活动。 Many forms of collecting have been dignified with a technical name: an archtophilist collects teddy bears, a philatelist collects postage stamps, and a deltiologist collects postcards. 很多收藏形式被授予了一个很有技术性的名字：收集泰迪熊的被称为archtophilist ，收集邮票的被称为philatelist，收集明信片的叫 deltiologist。 Amassing hundreds or even thousands of postcards, chocolate wrappers or whatever, takes time, energy and money that could surely be put to much more productive use. 收集成百上千的明信片、巧克力包装纸或者其他的任何东西花费了大量的时间、精力和金钱，而这些时间、经历和金钱本能被用到更加富有成效的地方。 And yet there are millions of collectors around the world. 然而，世界上仍然有数以百万计的收藏者。 Why do they do it? 他们为什么而收藏呢？

There are the people who collect because they want to make money - this could be called an instrumental reason for collecting; that is, collecting as a means to an end. 有些人喜欢收藏是因为他们想赚钱——这个被称为收藏的工具理性，收藏只是作为一种挣钱的方式。 They'll look for, say, antiques that they can buy cheaply and expect to be able to sell at a profit. 他们搜罗能便宜买进的古董，并且希望在卖出的时候能够获利。 But there may well be a psychological element, too - buying cheap and selling dear can give the collector a sense of triumph. 但是，这也可能是一种心理因素---便宜买进，高价卖出能够给收藏者带来一种成就感。 And as selling online is so easy, more and more people are joining in. 因为网络销售很容易，所以越来越多的人加入进来。

Many collectors collect to develop their social life, attending meetings of a group of collectors and exchanging information on items. 很多收藏者通过收藏来发展他们的社交生活，参加一些收藏者的聚会并且相互交换藏品信息。 This is a variant on joining a bridge club or a gym, and similarly brings them into contact with like-minded people. 这是参加桥牌俱乐部或者健身房的一种变体活动，这同样能让他们去跟志趣相投的人们接触。

Another motive for collecting is the desire to find something special, or a particular example of the collected item, such as a rare early recording by a particular singer. 收藏的另一个动机是想要得到一些特别的东西，或者是得到收藏品的某一个特例，比如说某一个歌手的早期专辑。 Some may spend their whole lives in a hunt for this. 许多人可能一辈子都在寻找这些东西。 Psychologically, this can give a purpose to a life that otherwise feels aimless. 从心理上来讲，这能够给那种原本可能毫无目的的生活带来目标。 There is a danger, though, that if the individual is ever lucky enough to find what they're looking for, rather than celebrating their success, they may feel empty, now that the goal that drove them on has gone. 然而，这也是有危险性的，如果一个人幸运地找到了他想得到的东西，而不是庆祝他们的成功，他们可能会感到空虚，因为驱使他们前进的目标已经没有了。

If you think about collecting postage stamps, another potential reason for it - or, perhaps, a result of collecting - is its educational value. 如果你想收集邮票，另一个可能的原因在于它的教育价值。 Stamp collecting opens a window to other countries, and to the plants, animals, or famous people shown on their stamps. 集邮为其他的国家打开了一扇窗，也给邮票上展示的那些植物、动物或名人打开了一扇窗。 Similarly, in the 19th century, many collectors amassed fossils, animals and plants from around the globe, and their collections provided a vast amount of information about the natural world. 同样地，在19世纪，许多收藏家收集了来自于世界各地的化石、动物和植物，他们的收藏提供了大量关于自然世界的信息。 Without those collections, our understanding would be greatly inferior to what it is. 如果没有那些收藏品，我们对这些物品的了解就会远远地低于现在。

In the past - and nowadays, too, though to a lesser extent - a popular form of collecting, particularly among boys and men, was trainspotting. 在过去和现在，在某种更小的程度上，尤其是那些男孩和男人，收集机车也是一种非常流行的收藏方式。 This might involve trying to see every locomotive of a particular type, using published data that identifies each one, and ticking off each engine as it is seen. 这这可能涉及到试图去查看每一种特定类型的机车，并且标记出每一个类型的机器。 Trainspotters exchange information, these days often by mobile phone, so they can work out where to go to, to see a particular engine. 在今天，机车收集者经常通过手机去交换信息，这样他们就可以知道去哪里看一个特定的机器。 As a by­product, many practitioners of the hobby become very knowledgeable about railway operations, or the technical specifications of different engine types. 作为一个副产品，许多兴趣爱好者对铁路运行和不同机器类型的技术特性变得非常了解。

Similarly, people who collect dolls may go beyond simply enlarging their collection, and develop an interest in the way that dolls are made, or the materials that are used. 同样地，那些收集玩偶娃娃的人可能不仅仅是简单的扩大他们的收藏，并且对玩偶的制作方式和使用的材料产生兴趣。 These have changed over the centuries from the wood that was standard in 16th century Europe, through the wax and porcelain of later centuries, to the plastics of today's dolls. 几个世纪以来，制作玩偶娃娃的材料已有所改变，从16世纪欧洲使用标准的木头，一直到后来的几个世纪使用蜡和陶瓷，一直到今天使用塑料。 Or collectors might be inspired to study how dolls reflect notions of what children like, or ought to like. 或者，收藏者可能会受到启发，去研究娃娃是如何反映孩子们喜欢什么，或者应该喜欢什么。

Not all collectors are interested in learning from their hobby, though, so what we might call a psychological reason for collecting is the need for a sense of control, perhaps as a way of dealing with insecurity. 但是，不是所有的收藏者都有兴趣从他们的爱好中去学习。所以，我们对于收集所称的心理原因是一种对控制感的需求，也许是一种处理不安全感的方式。 Stamp collectors, for instance, arrange their stamps in albums, usually very neatly, organising their collection according to certain commonplace principles - perhaps by country in alphabetical order, or grouping stamps by what they depict - people, birds, maps, and so on. 比如说集邮者，在集邮册里整理他们的邮票，通常是非常整齐的，通常是根据某种通用的规则去整理他们的收藏品——也许是按照字母顺序排列的国家。或者是按照邮票上面所描绘的人、鸟、地图等来进行划分。

One reason, conscious or not, for what someone chooses to collect is to show the collector's individualism. 有一个原因，无论有没有意识到，一个人选择收藏某物的原因之一是为了展示自己的个性。 Someone who decides to collect something as unexpected as dog collars, for instance, may be conveying their belief that they must be interesting themselves. 例如，一些人决定去收藏狗项圈这种意想不到的东西，这可能传达了他们的信念--这种收藏一定非常有趣。 And believe it or not, there is at least one dog collar museum in existence, and it grew out of a personal collection. 不管你信不信，至少有一个狗项圈博物馆是存在的，并且它是由个人收藏发展而来的。

Of course, all hobbies give pleasure, but the common factor in collecting is usually passion: pleasure is putting it far too mildly. 当然，所有的爱好都是快乐的，但是收集的共同因素通常是热情：快乐能让人变得很温和。 More than most other hobbies, collecting can be totally engrossing, and can give a strong sense of personal fulfilment. 跟其他的绝大多数爱好相比，收藏更能让人全神贯注，能给人一种强烈的个人成就感。 To non-collectors it may appear an eccentric, if harmless, way of spending time, but potentially, collecting has a lot going for it. 对于那些非收藏者来说，它看起来可能是一种古怪的、但没有伤害的消磨时间的方式，但将来，收藏仍然有很长的路要走。