好莱坞的间谍片中经常能看到主角手里拿着n个国家的护照，每个护照上的身份都不同。他在这个国家“遇害”后，仍然可以在别的国家风光无限地生活。当然，这是他们工作需要，不需要我们同情，有时可能还有点羡慕。不过在现实生活中，有些人因为经历了太多磨难，实在撑不下去了，所以想办法让自己死一次，跟过往一刀两断，从此开始另一个人的生活。这样的选择应该是很艰难的，从某种意义上说跟自杀了一次没什么分别。所以，在英语里把这种行为叫做pseudocide（假自杀）。

When life throws one too many things at you and the going is really tough, how attractive might it seem to re-invent yourself – to walk away from all your problems and begin a completely different existence? Though most of us wouldn't consider this in our wildest dreams, bravely soldiering on through even the most turbulent of times, there are a small minority of people who do just that – scrunch¹ up the page of life, throw it in the bin² and grab a clean sheet of paper. This is the essence of pseudocide.

当生活让你经历太多痛苦的时候，如果能让自己重生——远离你所有的问题，然后一切重新开始，那该多好啊。虽然我们大多数人做梦都不会想到要这样做，就算是再艰难的时候我们都会选择勇敢应对，还是有少数人那样做了——将写有之前人生经历的那一页揉碎、扔进垃圾桶，然后拿出一张白纸。这就是“假死”这一行为的本质所在。

Pseudocide is the act of faking your own death because you want to avoid serious personal, financial, or legal problems, and start a new life. Fake drowning is thought to be the most common method of pseudocide because it makes the absence of a body seem more plausible³.

“假死”（或“改头换面”）是一种因为想要逃避严重的个人、经济或法律问题而伪造自己死亡的表象，然后以新的身份开始生活的行为。伪造溺水身亡被认为是最常见的“假死”方式，因为这种情况下找不到尸体似乎听起来比较合理。