A “Primer” in Conceptual Metaphor for Counselors

Conceptual metaphor provides a potentially powerful counseling framework, generalizable across theoretical orientations. According to the conceptual perspective, metaphor is not merely a matter of language, but is an indispensable dimension of human understanding and experience whereby more abstract ideas (like relationships) are understood in terms of more concrete experiences (like journeys). Consequently, when a couple in counseling says, “we're just spinning our wheels,” they are not only using a common colloquial expression, but also giving information about how they conceptualize their relationship. This article provides a theoretical foundation for use of conceptual metaphor and offers examples of its potential for counseling.     

A Re-Visioning of Boundaries in Professional Helping Relationships: Exploring Other Metaphors

There are many ethical issues arising for practitioners in what are termed the boundaries of professional helping relationships. In this article, the authors argue that the boundary metaphor is not sufficient for conceptualizing these ethical issues and propose that alternative metaphors be considered. The use of a different metaphor might allow practitioners to re-vision the relationship issues in a more realistic, richer, and holistic way. Those explored here include highway, bridge, and territory. For the authors, it is territory that seems to hold the greatest promise.     

Metaphors can give life meaning

Conceptual metaphor theory offers a perspective on how and when people find meaning in life. Whereas life’s meaning can be difficult to grasp, metaphor compares life to a relatively more concrete and structured concept. Supporting this account, American adults (Study 1) and German undergraduates (Study 2) who framed life as a journey reported more meaning in life. The journey metaphor was particularly beneficial for individuals with low levels of perceived coherence in life (Study 2). Study 3 further explored this pattern of moderation: An accessible metaphor, compared to other life framings, benefited participants who lack a strong meaning framework. Study 4 focused on the mechanism behind metaphor’s influence. Participants who imagined events from their life journey perceived stronger interrelatedness among those events as measured with an analog spatial organization task. Perceived interrelatedness in turn predicted meaning in life, particularly for individuals with a strong preference for well-structured knowledge. Finally, participants who applied their own metaphor to life expressed greater meaning (Study 5), especially those high in personal need for structure (Study 6). An internal meta-analysis of these findings provides cumulative evidence for metaphor’s influence on perceived meaning in life and reveals moderating features of the individual.     

The Effects of Interpatient and Group Influences in a General Hospital

This article discusses the leader's use of metaphor in outpatient, psychodynamic group psychotherapy. Four clinical examples are provided that illustrate how the phase of group envelopment informs the leader's use of metaphor. Therapeutic features and uses of metaphor include (1) the development of ego skills that transform passivity into activity and foster the examination of unhealthy norms; (2) the modulation and rechanneling of potentially destructive affect and the intensification of affect that is denied, minimized, or avoided; (3) the creation of a verbal play space in which shared group language evolves; (4) and the provision of various levels of concreteness and abstraction as well as differing perspectives. Abuses of metaphorical interventions are discussed.     

Walking the yellow brick road

This article uses the story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. F. Baum, 1900) as a metaphor for exploring career counseling issues related to self‐deception, loss, and the search for the “all‐knowing” expert. The dynamics of the story can be applied to both counseling practice and counselor training. Cross‐cultural issues are also considered.     

Adoption in Judaism

Abstract : This article examines of the place of adoption in Jewish thought and law. Adoption is undocumented in the Hebrew Bible, but some verses suggest—or have been said to describe—realities similar to adoption. Beginning with a discussion of the immutability of the relationships in the biological family, this article discusses the merits of caring for orphans and the special halakhic situations that arise for a Jewish family that pursues a civil adoption. The article concludes with a discussion of adoption as a metaphor for a convert's relationship with the ancestors of the Jewish people.     

Platonism and metaphor in the texts of mathematics: Gödel and Frege on mathematical knowledge

In this paper, I challenge those interpretations of Frege that reinforce the view that his talk of grasping thoughts about abstract objects is consistent with Russell's notion of acquaintance with universals and with Gödel's contention that we possess a faculty of mathematical perception capable of perceiving the objects of set theory. Here I argue the case that Frege is not an epistemological Platonist in the sense in which Gödel is one. The contention advanced is that Gödel bases his Platonism on a literal comparison between mathematical intuition and physical perception. He concludes that since we accept sense perception as a source of empirical knowledge, then we similarly should posit a faculty of mathematical intuition to serve as the source of mathematical knowledge. Unlike Gödel, Frege does not posit a faculty of mathematical intuition. Frege talks instead about grasping thoughts about abstract objects. However, despite his hostility to metaphor, he uses the notion of ‘grasping’ as a strategic metaphor to model his notion of thinking, i.e., to underscore that it is only by logically manipulating the cognitive content of mathematical propositions that we can obtain mathematical knowledge. Thus, he construes ‘grasping’ more as theoretical activity than as a kind of inner mental ‘seeing’.

     

The presence of sexuality as Cantus Firmus with Variations

This text is a distillate of many years of activity as a psychoanalyst. The author gives personal reflections on sexuality as it appears in transference and countertransference, in theory and clinically. The phenomena are viewed from the perspective of metaphor, as the author uses, e.g., the music of Franz Schubert as a metaphor for Eros and Thanatos; concepts she sees are metaphors in themselves. The phenomena of ?wild analysis” and guilt are also commented upon.     

Woman as Metaphor1

Women's activities and relations to men are persistent metaphors for man's projects. I query the prominence of these and the lack of equivalent metaphors where men are the metaphoric vehicle for women and women's activities. Women's role as metaphor results from her otherness and her relational and mediational importance in men's lives. Otherness, mediation, and relation characterize the role of metaphor in language and thought. This congruence between metaphor and women makes the metaphor of woman especially potent in man's conceptual economy.     

Audience,Implicit Racial Bias,and Cinematic Twists in Zootopia

This article argues that Zootopia, while positively exploring implicit racial bias, nonetheless leaves aside a huge swath of nonwhite viewers. By using the vehicle of fear that prey animals have for predators as a metaphor for race, its story primarily caters to white audiences and encourages them to consider what sorts of implications biased presumptions and predispositions might have on one's fellow creatures. Through the use of different epistemological and thematic twists, this movie drives home its point of showing the negative impacts that implicit racial biases may have, even as it sidelines many of its potential viewers.     

The strategic performance of heterotopic experiences in higher education: Imagining spaces of potentiality for new South African identities

In an interview published in Esprit, Achille Mbembe asks “what is ‘today’, and what are we today? What are the lines of fragility, the lines of precariousness, the fissures in contemporary African life? And, possibly, how could what is, be no more, how could it give birth to something else?” As a response to this question of African identity, this article is twofold. Firstly, I aim to draw together an argument that recent and ongoing debates about decolonising knowledge (including Mbembe’s 2015 WISER lecture and open public conversations with the #RhodesMustFall [#RMF] student movement) can be read as part of the search for ways “to be otherwise”. In fact, higher education (HE) institutions should be, can be, and often are, crucial spaces of potentiality in this regard. An essential part of realising Mbembe’s vision of a new kind of human, therefore, would be to ensure that institutions in the contemporary HE landscape recognise, embrace and therefore (paradoxically) become what they are, namely “heterotopias”. Heterotopology is a metaphor Michel Foucault suggests in his 1967 lecture Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias. Accepting that HE is a heterotopically discursive site, this article provides a brief, broad Foucaultian heterotopology of the contemporary HE landscape, with specific reference to the South African context. It focuses on Foucault’s three types of heterotopia (crisis, deviation and compensation) and his six principles of heterotopia. Secondly, it would be something of a performative contradiction if this article were merely to follow the conventions of a traditionally organised philosophical argument about an engaging metaphor (“heterotopia”). As an experimental “strategic performance”, the writing itself aims to produce a heterotopic reading experience, thereby joining in the heuristic excavation of experience, which is the task of the heterotopia. It draws disparate, clashing elements into a complex textual web, which should generate at least some feeling of disturbance or cognitive dissonance. In the article’s fissures and joints, readers should find points of entry for critical and creative thinking. As Johnson puts it in his analysis of Foucault’s metaphor, “heterotopias glitter and clash in their incongruous variety, illuminating a passage for our imagination”.     

Why Metaphors have no Meaning: Considering Metaphoric Meaning in Davidson

Abstract

Since the publication of Donald Davidson’s essay “What Metaphors Mean” (1978) – in which he famously asserts that metaphor has no meaning – the views expressed in it have mostly met with criticism: prominently from Mary Hesse and Max Black. This article attempts to explain Davidson’s surprise-move regarding metaphor by relating it to elements in the rest of his work in semantics, such as the principle of compositionality, radical interpretation and the principle of charity. I conclude that Davidson’s views on metaphor are not only consistent with his semantic theory generally, but that his semantics also depend on these insights. Eventually, the debate regarding Davidson’s views on metaphor should be conducted on the level of his views on the nature of semantics, the relationship between language and the world and the possibility that there is something like conceptual schemes.

Sedert die publikasie van Donald Davidson se opstel What Metaphors Mean (1978) – waarin hy die berugte stelling maak dat metafoor geen betekenis het nie – is sy sieninge meestal begroet met kritiek, ook van prominente figure soos Mary Hesse en Max Black. Hierdie artikel poog om’n verduideliking te vind vir Davidson se verrassende skuif aangaande metafoor, deur sy sieninge hieroor te kontekstualiseer teen die agtergrond van elemente uit die res van sy werk in semantiek, soos die beginsel van komposisionaliteit, radikale interpretasie en die beginsel van rasionele akkomodasie (charity). Ek kom tot die gevolgtrekking dat Davidson se sieninge aangaande metafoor nie slegs naatloos aansluit by sy algemene sieninge aangaande semantiek nie, maar dat die res van sy semantiese teorie ook athang van sy sieninge aangaande metafoor. Uiteindelik behoort die debat rakende Davidson se sieninge aangaande metafoor gevoer te word op die vlak van die aard van semantiek, die verhouding tussen taal en die werldikheid en die moontlike bestaan van konseptuele skemas.     

THE METAPHOR OF THE ARCHITECT IN DARWIN: CHANCE AND FREE WILL

In The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, published in 1868, Darwin used the metaphor of the architect to argue in favor of natural autonomy and to clarify the role of chance in his theory of adaptive change by variation and natural selection. In this article, I trace the history of this important heuristic instrument in Darwin's writings and letters and suggest that this metaphor was important to Darwin because it helps him to explain the role of chance, and gives an argument in favor of the free will.     

Young children's comprehension of similarities underlying metaphor

The comprehension of similarity by forty-eight 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds was investigated using a set of binary choice tasks. These tasks were composed of contrasting concepts that were to be matched to conceptually related target stimuli on the basis of relationships underlying object/personality metaphor, color/personality metaphor, concrete metaphor, taxonomic similarity, and functional association. The youngest children were able to comprehend each of the metaphoric and nonmetaphoric relationships, and this ability improved with age.This article is based on the doctoral dissertation of Victor Broderick (Broderick, 1985),The Development of Metaphor Comprehension in Preschool Children, at the Pennsylvania State University. The author would like to thank the directors and instructors of the Child Development Council of Center County, Childspace, OEO, Punkin Patch, Garden of Children, the Jewish Community Center, Our Children's Center, and Parkforest Montessori School for their cooperation and helpful assistance in recruiting subjects and collecting data on the premises. I would also like to thank David Palermo, Keith Nelson, Robert Seibel, Donka Farkas, Philip Prinz, and Francis Whaley for their input and advice. Finally, I would like to thank those 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds who sat patiently for as much as 60 min, answering unusual questions about monkeys, chocolate, and burned out light bulbs.     

Deconstructing the “Covered Bridge” - Couples Therapy with Sexual Abuse Survivors and Their Partners

SUMMARY

In accepting the editor's invitation to submit an article for this volume, I have taken the subject matter, Building Bridges, quite literally: that is, to talk about bridges as a rather compelling metaphor for couple relationships. I have chosen to focus on the covered bridge, in particular, as it informs me most graphically of the structure and therapeutic challenge presented by couples in which one partner is a child sexual abuse survivor. In my clinical work with such couples, I invariably find myself in the role of surveyor/engi-neer/builder, deconstructing the “covered bridge” and engaged in building a stronger, more open and enduring structure. The steps toward rebuilding and transforming the “covered bridge” structure for these couples are outlined and illustrated.     

How to Throw a Pot: The Centrality of the Potter's Wheel in the Zhuangzi

This article explains Zhuangzi's philosophy by analyzing the metaphor of the potter's wheel. I argue that this is one of the central images in the core chapters of the Zhuangzi. Together with two cognate images, it not only appears in some crucial passages, but also allows us to integrate a variety of seemingly independent topics. The article consists of four sections. I start by placing the potter's wheel against a background of other artisan tools. A second section focuses on three major themes revolving around the image of the potter's wheel in the Zhuangzi: stillness of mind, flexibility in response, and harmonizing and living out one's years. A third section discusses the negative portrayal of measurement tools in the Zhuangzi. In an afterword, I summarize the findings and revisit some methodological issues. The study shows that concrete images such as artisan tools may provide important clues for interpreting philosophical texts.     

Fluency or Similarities? Cognitive Abilities that Contribute to Creative Metaphor Generation

This study focused on the cognitive abilities that contribute to creative metaphor generation. A concept explanation task was used to test conventional and novel (creative) metaphor generation. Conceptual fluency and similarities were measured using the Tel-Aviv Creativity Test (TACT). The main goal was to investigate how fluency of ideas and similarities contribute to creative metaphor generation. Fifty-four children (M = 12.59, SD = 2.05) participated in the study. The findings demonstrated that fluency of ideas contributed to the prediction of creative potential, but not conventional metaphor generation, beyond similarities, cognitive abilities, executive functions, verbal abilities, and age. The results thus show that novel metaphor generation is unique and separate estimate of creative potential, which is reciprocally related to conceptual fluency.     

Therapists’ Subjective Experience during Improvisational Moments in the Clinical Encounter-Discussion of I’mprovisation

With this discussion, I reflect on the limitations of this pilot qualitative research. These include how categories of observation are established and the generalizability of the reported results beyond the small sample of subjects studied. Additionally, the metaphor of theater used by the investigators for understanding improvisation is compared and contrasted with the metaphor of jazz improvisation. Jazz improvisation as a metaphor works well with the quantitative data coming from infant/caregiver video studies. These studies represent a more micro focus on embodied registrations of the emotional/behavioral interactive process and account for data which might be otherwise unconsciously overlooked or dissociated with a strategy valorizing I’mprovisation. I then visit the question of whether improvisation should be held as an ideal versus an ideal of continuous practice and vigilance for how theoretical biases, personal credos and habits of activity can become unreflective traps blocking spontaneous emergent possibilities for clinically relevant movement and growth.     

Emotional Memory,Metaphor, and Meaning

Advances in neuroscience make it possible to view the construction of meaning as a biological property. Freud's Project for a Scientific Psychology in which emotion and memory form a seamless unified system is seen as an attempt to establish psychoanalysis as a neurobiology of meaning. In the unconscious construction of meaning, metaphor plays a salient role; metaphor is the currency of mind. I have suggested that metaphor functions unconsciously as a pattern detector and thus plays a dominant role in the organizing and categorizing of emotional memory. Consideration of the evolution of the limbic system enables us to make a functional distinction between unconscious emotional memory and conscious feelings. These observations should lead to a revision of our current psychoanalytic theory of affects.