Theory as metaphor: clinical knowledge and its communication

Abstract :  This paper investigates the relationship between clinical knowledge and psychological theory and considers the implications for clinical writing. I argue that clinical knowledge is a way of understanding rather than a body of facts and compare clinical material to 'texts' that generate multiple and indeterminate meanings. Analytic theories, which represent the crystallization of ways of understanding clinical phenomena, have an inherently metaphorical 'as if' quality since they are derived from and adapted to the clinical process of making meaning by representing psychic states in symbolic form. Thus good clinical writing demonstrates an integration of theory and clinical material into a unified network of symbolic meanings. Redfearn's paper, 'The captive, the treasure, the hero and the "anal" stage of development' (1979), is discussed as an exemplar of such integration. It is suggested that clinical knowledge is equivalent to the skill of making effective interpretations.     

黑白隐喻对大学生诚信的影响

诚信是立身处世之本。本研究分别采用内隐IAT范式、启动范式及现场实验考察中文语境下黑白隐喻对诚信的影响。结果发现：黑白与诚信存在显著的内隐语义联结,表现为一致条件下的反应时显著低于不一致时的反应时。且这种隐喻联结稳定存在于具体的黑白情境中,即白色背景显著提高诚信选择,黑色背景下不诚信选择亦显著提高。而在真实明暗体验中,与明环境相比,暗环境更容易导致被试不诚信行为。本研究显示在中国文化群体中存在“白-诚信”、“黑-不诚信”的隐喻联结;在明暗环境中,中国被试表现出“暗”促进不诚信行为的现象。     

Ancestral Voices, Spirits, and Magic: Dance a New Dance in the Family Therapy Room

Despite important moves toward reconciliation and dreams of a rainbow nation, the culture of violence impacts upon family and community life. This article is written within this context and more specifically within the writer's personal reflections on her practice of working as a family therapist in one of South Africa's largest black townships, Mdantsane. It challenges the relevance of first world theory and practice of family therapy in the third world context but is written in the first person and thus in the form of a reflective practitioner. The usefulness of the Milan approach is questioned and a move toward a social constructionist approach is favoured. The metaphor of dance and music is used to capture the dynamic interaction between client and therapist in the search for a relevant and respectful way of working with families in the South African context.     

Logic or rhetoric in law?

One of the most crucial questions in the philosophy of law deals with the very nature of legal reasoning. Does this reasoning belong to logic or to rhetoric? This debate, increasingly centered on rhetoric, is not merely a question of language use; it covers and indicates a more basic choice between formal legalism — focusing on rational deduction from the law — and pragmatic judiciarism — focusing on reasonable debate in the court. Today, it is necessary to circumscribe the respective fields of logic and rhetoric in the language of law, while showing how they are sometimes complementary in the resolution of legal problems. But, even when we have acknowledged the need for a rhetoric accompanied by logic, we have to define that rhetoric cautiously. I confront a narrow rhetoric, often called argumentation, with a wider one of interrogative nature. There are two conceptions of rationality at stake. Their comparison enables us to raise the question of the foundation of law, as a locus to use arguments, as well as to solve social problems.     

ON THE TRANSDISCIPLINARY NATURE OF THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF DISCOVERY

Abstract. Despite the by now historical tendency to demarcate scientific epistemology sharply from virtually all others, especially theological "epistemology ," it has recently been recognized that both enterprises share a great deal in common, at least as far as the epistemology of discovery is implicated. Such a claim is founded upon a psychological analysis of figuration, where, it is argued, metaphor plays a crucial role in the mediation of discovery, in the domains of science and religion alike. Thus, although the conventionally conceived scientific method is crucial to the enterprise, primacy must nonetheless be accorded to discovery , which drives virtually all disciplines.     

De l'argumentation comme métamorphose

Linguistic rhetoric and argumentative reasoning are generally identified. Certain types of problems, however, make use of non-verbal systems of representation, and, among them, image. Image is not just matter but also form, and computer processing in AI makes it possible to grasp this form by linguistic means (logico-mathematical languages). The synthesis of animated images has made it possible to represent metamorphoses, the thought of the unexpected. The fact that language produces image (and conversely) does not fail to transform the standard ways of thinking about epistemology.

     

CRITICAL REALISM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE: RESPONSE TO ROBBINS, VAN HUYSSTEEN, AND HEFNER

Abstract. I read Robbins's essay as a hermeneutics of suspicion against the claims of critical realism, especially the tendency of critical realism to achieve correspondence with the world rather than participation in changing it. I read van Huyssteen's essay as an application of critical realism which tends toward correspondence in spite of his correct statement of the theory. I read Hefner's paper as an exposition of both claims and methods capable of conveying truth and genuine knowledge. As such, Hefner's paper illustrates an adequate application of the theory of critical realism and overcomes the suspicion suggested by Robbins.     

Metaphors for God: Why and How Do Our Choices Matter for Humans? The Application of Contemporary Cognitive Linguistics Research to the Debate on God and Metaphor

This article explores and critiques conservative and liberal theological understandings of metaphor in light of the contemporary research in cognitive linguistics. This assessment is followed by a cognitive examination of the biblical metaphors for God, their unconscious entailments, an assessment of why certain metaphors are more effective than others, and a short discussion of the implications of this effectiveness.     

Fitting a square peg in a square hole: Using metaphor in narrative therapy

This paper examines the assumptions of the narrative mode of therapy and the assumptions of therapeutic metaphors. The premise is that the use of metaphor fits the assumptions of narrative therapy and can enhance and expand narrative therapy. This paper examines the structure and types of metaphor, explores their fit within the narrative model, and gives three case examples which illustrate the use of metaphor in narrative therapy.Kevin Lyness, MS, is a doctoral candidate, MFT Program, 1269 Fowler House, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1268, and a doctoral candidate in the MFT Program, Purdue University. Volker Thomas, PhD, is assistant professor, Marriage and Family Therapy Program, 1269 Fowler House, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1269. Reprint requests should be sent to the first author.     

Of thorns and roses: The use of the “brier rose” fairy tale in therapy with families of gifted children

Fairy tales have been used successfully in addressing difficult therapeutic issues in indirect ways. This paper describes how the Grimm's tale Brier Rose can help engage families with an academically gifted child in family therapy. The metaphor concepts of derivational search, indirection, and embedded commands are briefly discussed, the fairy tale is summarized, and the story is applied to the three metaphor concepts.