“房间里的大象”是英文里一个非常形象的比喻,意指“所有那些触目惊心地存在却被明目张胆地忽略甚至否定的事实或感受”。在美国社会学家泽鲁巴维尔那里,这个意象被详细地拆解了,他明确指出,这只庞大到令人不适的大象是指:我们知道,但是我们清楚地知道自己不该知道的事。在著作《房间里的大象:生活中的沉默和否认》的序言里,泽鲁巴维尔指出,书写和思考“沉默” “Elephant in the room ” is a very figurative metaphor in English, meaning “all those facts or feelings that are shockingly exist but are blatantly neglected or even rejected.” The image was dismantled in detail in the American sociologist Zerub Pavlv, who made it clear that this mega to unpleasant elephant means: we know, but we know clearly what we should not know thing. In the preface to the book “Elephants in the Room: Silence and Denial in Life,” Zerubauer pointed out that writing and thinking “silence”