心理治疗中隐喻的使用、疗效检验及作用机制

隐喻是用一种具体、熟悉的概念去表达和理解一种抽象、不熟悉的概念的语言形式和认知方式,因其在心理治疗中可以有效传递治疗信息而被治疗师们广泛使用。早期的隐喻理论阐述了隐喻具有高创造性和增强长时记忆的认知加工优势,虽然不同心理治疗流派在治疗过程中对使用来访者还是治疗师产生的隐喻各有侧重,但它们都认为隐喻可以通过高创造性的内容、形成更优的长时记忆以及带来高度的认知卷入来帮助咨访双方有效加工、传递和保存治疗信息。精神分析流派强调治疗性隐喻在无意识水平上的意义交换产生的顿悟过程,认知行为疗法既强调隐喻可以促进认知图式的重构,也强调其组块性和形象性产生的记忆功能,接纳与承诺疗法认为隐喻传递信息时具有非评判、非分析、直觉经验的方式有利于促进个体发生改变,后现代疗法中强调让来访者重新叙述自己的人生故事或者发展出一种形象性或象征性表达,让来访者产生更具有功能的观点和看法。因此治疗性隐喻具备了跨越不同心理治疗理论取向的广泛认同基础。在实证研究上,大多数研究聚焦于探索在某种治疗方法中加入隐喻是否会有更佳的治疗效果,其中使用CBT作为框架的研究最为集中,有些研究发现隐喻干预在缓解心理症状方面优于常规干预,也有研究发现隐喻干预和非隐喻干预都可以有效缓解被试的心理痛苦,因此虽然没有获得十分一致的结论,但这些研究总体上证明了在心理治疗中使用隐喻是有效的。随着研究的深入,对治疗性隐喻起效的心理神经机制进行探索的实证研究也有效观测到了隐喻理论中提出的认知加工优势,包括隐喻的高创造性可以诱发顿悟（并伴随杏仁核、海马、梭状回等特异性神经网络的显著激活）、带来更佳的治疗效果,隐喻内容更容易被记住、有助于治疗持续发挥作用,以及隐喻可以增加来访者的认知卷入程度进而带来更大程度的认知改变。综上,无论从理论构建还是实证证据上,治疗性隐喻都是一种具有独特认知加工优势的认知工具和治疗信息传递途径。未来研究可以从更加科学的设置对照组、增加隐喻特异性的效果衡量指标以及探索其他可能的心理机制三个方面来进一步观察在治疗性隐喻的独特优势。最后,对在心理治疗实践中更好的使用隐喻以及研发嵌入隐喻的低成本高效益的社会心理健康服务方案提供了建议。     

The career of metaphor

A central question in metaphor research is how metaphors establish mappings between concepts from different domains. The authors propose an evolutionary path based on structure-mapping theory. This hypothesis--the career of metaphor--postulates a shift in mode of mapping from comparison to categorization as metaphors are conventionalized. Moreover, as demonstrated by 3 experiments, this processing shift is reflected in the very language that people use to make figurative assertions. The career of metaphor hypothesis offers a unified theoretical framework that can resolve the debate between comparison and categorization models of metaphor. This account further suggests that whether metaphors are processed directly or indirectly, and whether they operate at the level of individual concepts or entire conceptual domains, will depend both on their degree of conventionality and on their linguistic form.     

Adaptive Tasks in Multiple Sclerosis: Development of an Instrument to Identify the Focus of Patients' Coping Efforts

Objective : Adaptive tasks, referring to the subjective evaluation of disease-related stressors in relation to personal concerns, have been neglected in the extensive literature on coping with chronic disease. In this study, the development of an instrument for measuring adaptive tasks is described: the Questionnaire Adaptive Tasks in Multiple Sclerosis (QuAT-MS). Method : The QuAT-MS is based on a bottom-up categorization of patients' statements on the losses, threats, and challenges brought about by their disease, and employs 10 scales to measure the importance attached to particular disease-related stressors. Validity and reliability of this bottom-up categorization were established in a sample of MS patients ( N = 259) by examining their associations with related concepts relevant in adaptation to disease, such as coping (CISS), coping resources (LOT, self-efficacy), and quality of life (SIP). We also investigated whether patients' backgrounds and disease characteristics were related to adaptive tasks. Results : Adaptive tasks are more closely related with concepts relevant for adaptation (coping and coping resources) than with physical functioning (SIP) and disease-related characteristics (illness duration). Adaptive tasks are also associated with gender and level of education. Conclusion : It is concluded that adaptive tasks can be distinguished from related concepts like coping and quality of life. Furthermore, the QuAT-MS offers a reliable and patient-centred instrument for measuring the tasks which MS patients identify in their adaptation process.     

A peocess model of ethnocultural counselling for African survivors of organized violence

By analysing some 500 counselling and psychotherapy cases of survivors of organized violence as a therapist and supervisor over ten years the author developed a heuristic framework for a process model of ethnocultural counselling considering: (1) African counsellor's indigenous concepts, (2) a WHO-UNHCR approach, (3) a heuristic approach to psychotherapy, (4) a constructive narrative perspective, (5) an ethnopsychotherapeutic approach, and (6) a counselling approach for lay counsellors. The counselling process model comprises the following components: (1) Establishing a counselling relationship and motivation for change; (2) defining the problem, explanatory models, goals, and finding interventional means; (3) social comparison, cognitive undoing, metaphors, shared experiences and relaxation techniques; (4) working through the trauma, testimony approach; (5) ritualistic, cognitive and supportive approaches; (6) principle of education and advice; (7) evaluating and revizing treatment and stabilizing behaviour. These seven counselling components are described and counselling case examples are provided from Sudanese refugees in a large camp in Uganda and Malawian torture survivors in Malawi.     

Searching for Family Therapy in the Rockies: Family Therapists Meet A Paleontologist

Family therapists use concepts germane to other academic disciplines. We recount four notions--context, explanatory metaphors, language conventions, and persistently refining knowledge--that family therapists and paleontologists each utilize. Revisiting family therapy's foundational concepts through the lens of another discipline reminds us of our theoretical beginnings, highlights those professional adaptations that we have made over the years, and offers us an opportunity to reinvigorate and expand our central organizing principles.     

The metaphor police: A case study of the role of metaphor in explanation

While many scholars have pointed to the role of metaphor in explanation, relatively little experimental research has examined whether and how metaphors are used and understood in everyday explanatory discourse. Across 3 experiments, we investigated the nature and function of metaphor in explanation by drawing on a real-world example where the terms guardian and warrior were used to metaphorically explain the role of police officers. We found, first, that the associations participants brought to mind for these concepts differed depending on whether they had previously answered questions about law enforcement (e.g., associations for warrior emphasized aggression and violence rather than strength and bravery when participants had previously answered questions about policing). Second, people were almost evenly split in their judgment of which metaphor was more appropriate to explain the role of law enforcement; this preference was highly predictive of beliefs related to policing and the criminal justice system. Third, and most important, using these metaphors to explain the job of policing causally influenced attitudes toward law enforcement in a metaphor-congruent manner (i.e., exposure to the guardian metaphor led to more positive attitudes), a finding that could not be accounted for by basic lexical priming. These studies complement existing work that has identified metaphor as a mechanism for representing abstract concepts, but also highlight the communicative and explanatory, rather than representational, functions of metaphor by showing that metaphors can encapsulate and convey an array of structured attitudes and beliefs.     

The Protective Skin of the Analyst’s Case Formulation: Commentary on Paper by Tom Wooldridge

The contours of every psychoanalytic process are shaped by its case formulation. This discussion of Tom Wooldridge’s paper (this issue) of the long-term, psychodynamic treatment of a patient with severe anorexia provides opportunity to demonstrate that formulation derives from aspects of the clinician’s clinical education and personal growth. Wooldridge’s metaphor of the containing functions of the entropic body is extended to include particular paternal functions that an analyst provides his patient and that are suggested in the dialogue of this clinical material. Psychoanalytic case formulation distinguishes it from other aspects of an integrated treatment plan for eating disorder patients; in particular, clinician and patient discover important metaphors and elaborations of personal history that assist in recovery. Thinking through a case from different lenses provides real gratification for the psychoanalyst and a bulwark to assist in potentially life-saving work because of its protective and enriching functions. Drawing upon the metaphors Wooldridge expands upon such as secondary skin formations and the entropic body, I suggest that clinicians who work in the field of eating disorders could draw great benefit from learning more about what psychoanalytic case formulation offers patients. Detailed, evocative case examples such as the one Tom Wooldridge puts forward may be one way to reach this important audience because they bring to life many of the unique features of contemporary psychoanalysis.     

具身道德隐喻映射机制的双向性及其问题——基于具身效应“可重复性危机”的思考

具身认知研究虽已取得令人瞩目的进展,但某些具身效应存在可重复性较低的问题。若长期忽视这一问题,将严重损害心理学的科学性,甚至引发一定程度的“可重复性危机”。本文从道德概念清洁隐喻的两大映射方向出发,基于两大实验类型对相关研究中可能存在的问题因素分别展开分析。未来研究应关注更注重社会互动的组织道德,将道德概念具身隐喻研究引申到现实问题中,并借助认知神经科学技术更全面地考察身体经验、情绪体验和认知加工在道德清洁隐喻加工中的作用。     

‘Bridging’ and ‘Exit’ as Metaphors of Multilingual Education: A Constructionist Analysis

Using social constructionist perspective this paper critically examines the multilingual education (MLE) discourse and practices in the Indian states of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. The choice of MLE model is influenced by the construction of the problem of tribal children??s learning as ??poor?? or ??inadequate?? bridging between the language and concepts used in everyday life and school. ??Bridging?? and ??exit??, therefore, became key metaphors of MLE programmes. The discursive embedding of these metaphors in the policy documents indicates that they are political and serve to fulfill the mandates of the constitution of India and policy frameworks for early education in mother tongue without subverting the language hierarchy or the majority-centric school education. The current MLE programmes lack pedagogy of critique and limit the scope for reflexive deliberations.     

Where Does I Stand? Reflections on Home and Identity Ensnared in a Cultural Narrative

In this paper the author explores a cultural narrative that she suggests rests on the concepts of the Feminine and Masculine as such, employing both as though they contain an agreed set of universal givens. These givens are extrapolated from an androcentric perspective on female and male bodies, in particular their biological functions regarding reproduction. The metaphors of the baby-in-womb, mother’s preoccupation with child and heteronormative sexual relations are the primary cyphers for the narrative. She suggests that remaining unconscious of this narrative, such that it is taken as a universal given, can hamper a person’s relation to themselves, the world and others. The author names two concepts, Home and Identity: Home being an hospitable and accommodating space with Identity denoting the one who inhabits the space. In the narrative these two are unhelpfully categorized as belonging to the Feminine and the Masculine respectively. For ease of understanding the author uses a capital letter to designate an abstract idea, and lower case when referring to the concrete or particular. Clinical examples are given throughout the paper to illustrate how acknowledgement and awareness of this narrative might free the analyst or therapist to think more broadly around issues pertaining to space and identity.     

Before they're victims: Rethinking youth‐targeted relationship abuse prevention in Australia

Intimate partner abuse (or relationship abuse) against women is recognised as a major public health issue. A number of relationship abuse prevention programs targeted at youth have been developed in Australia. These programs are generally aimed at changing attitudes, and take the stance that girls should not be viewed as being responsible for protecting themselves against violence. In this paper it is argued that the current, dominant focus on physical violence, over other forms of relationship abuse, limits the potential effectiveness of programs that might otherwise help young people to resist the development of abusive dynamics. It is also argued that programs that presume a victim status for girls and a perpetrator status for boys are both inconsistent with contemporary evidence and unlikely to empower young people at risk of chronic perpetration and/or victimisation to avoid such outcomes. A dyadic slippery slope model of chronic relationship abuse is proposed and new directions for prevention research in this area are suggested.     

The Marikana Violence in South Africa: A Brief Psychodynamic Extrapolation

This study applies psychoanalytic concepts in making sense of the individual, group and collective factors that may have contributed towards the Marikana violence. Speculatively, individual factors might include the death instinct, repetition compulsion, and intra-psychic splitting. Related group dynamics such as identification with the aggressor, group and projective identification might be relevant as would the collective psychological influences of history of oppression, severe trans-generational traumatisation, and mystical cultural interpretations in a divided society. Further public truth, reconciliation and forgiveness processes in addition to other integrative forms of healing are proposed.     

The Cyborg as an Interpretation of Culture-Nature

The idea of "nature" performs an important cultural work. The cyborg-nature is an attempt to free ourselves from the features of the culturally authorized concepts of nature. The cyborg offers new metaphors to both academic and popular theorizing for comprehending the different ways that sciences and technologies affect our lives, subjectivities, and concepts. The cyborg is a lived reality and a metaphor. Paul Tillich deemed it necessary to have a mythos of technology to explain our technologies and ourselves. He offered "The Technical City" as a symbol for his age. Donna Haraway's cy-borg-figure could function as a symbol to interpret our time and technologies and ourselves.     

Categorization and metaphor understanding.

Glucksberg and Keysar (1990) have proposed a class-inclusion model of metaphor comprehension. This theory suggests that metaphors are not understood as implicit similes but are seen as class-inclusion statements in which the topic of a metaphor is assigned to a diagnostic, ad hoc category, whereas the metaphor's vehicle is a prototypical member of that category. The author claims that verbal metaphors are not simply instantiations of temporary, ad hoc categories but reflect preexisting conceptual mappings in long-term memory that are metaphorically structured. Various evidence from cognitive linguistics, philosophy, and psychology are described in support of this claim. Evidence is also presented that supports, contrary to Glucksberg and Keysar's position, the role of tacit conceptual metaphors in the comprehension of verbal metaphors in discourse.     

Metaphors in Creative Scientific Thought

This article explores the role played by metaphors in creative scientific thought. The research necessarily touches on scientific realism and so causal theory of reference plays an essential role. Actual cases from scientific research are considered. There emerges a view of scientific creativity in which science advances through an assimilation/accommodation process in which metaphors and correspondence principles are essential. Natural inclusion of casual theory of reference with metaphors means continuous theory change while ontology remains fixed.     

The role of warning behaviors in threat assessment: an exploration and suggested typology

The concept of warning behaviors offers an additional perspective in threat assessment. Warning behaviors are acts which constitute evidence of increasing or accelerating risk. They are acute, dynamic, and particularly toxic changes in patterns of behavior which may aid in structuring a professional's judgment that an individual of concern now poses a threat - whether the actual target has been identified or not. They require an operational response. A typology of eight warning behaviors for assessing the threat of intended violence is proposed: pathway, fixation, identification, novel aggression, energy burst, leakage, directly communicated threat, and last resort warning behaviors. Previous research on risk factors associated with such warning behaviors is reviewed, and examples of each warning behavior from various intended violence cases are presented, including public figure assassination, adolescent and adult mass murder, corporate celebrity stalking, and both domestic and foreign acts of terrorism. Practical applications and future research into warning behaviors are suggested.     

Protean and boundaryless careers as metaphors

The terms “protean career” and “boundaryless career” are metaphors. This paper outlines the nature of metaphor and its use in contemporary social science, particularly in the study of careers. It identifies five characteristics of metaphors, which serve as a guide to analyzing and evaluating them. These are (1) literal and figurative meaning; (2) elaboration in theory; (3) external understanding; (4) relationship to other metaphors; and (5) accuracy and constructiveness. The protean and boundaryless career metaphors are examined in relation to each characteristic. Both concepts have developed in understanding outside their literal and figurative meaning. Both however appear functional in the current shifting careers environment. Suggestions are made for the further development of the concepts.     

A neurodevelopmental perspective on male violence

Research is increasingly documenting a neurobiological basis to violence. This review takes a neurodevelopmental perspective on the very small group of males who grow up to become persistent violent offenders. After outlining six criteria for what constitutes a neurodevelopmental disorder, the extent to which chronic violence meets these definitional criteria is examined, covering the fields of genetics, structural and functional brain imaging, and neuropsychology. Early health risk factors for violence are then outlined, including birth complications, minor physical anomalies, prenatal smoking and alcohol exposure, poor nutrition, lead exposure, and traumatic brain injury. Persistent adult violence is argued to originate in aberrant temperamental behavior in early childhood, to have a stable developmental trajectory, and to be associated with impaired education, social, and occupational functioning. Taken together, it is argued that chronic adult violence meets criterion for being conceptualized as having neurodevelopmental origins and that an important, but not sole, source of neural maldevelopment lies in prenatal and early postnatal risk factors. This review concludes with a recognition of the sociopolitical context within which a neurodevelopmental perspective on chronic violence sits, together with directions for future research, including whether a neurodevelopmental hypothesis is best applied to reactive as opposed to proactive aggression.