Cover not available
Part of
The Language of Crisis: Metaphors, frames and discourses
Edited by Mimi Huang and Lise-Lotte Holmgreen
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 87] 2020
► pp. 199–229

Chapter 7
The ‘transformative’ power of metaphor

Assessing its unexplored potential at the crossroads between static and dynamic instances

Given the centrality of bodily and emotional experience to the notion of conceptual metaphor (Lakoff and Johnson 2003[1980]; Lakoff 1993; Gibbs 2006a and b; Kövecses 2000), this chapter investigates the ‘transformative power’ of metaphor in ‘talking cure’ practices, to face personal crisis and to produce strategic change.
Starting from the centrality of metaphor in the (-re)structuring of experience (Burns 2005; Loue 2008; Roffman 2008), its power as a ‘transformative’ tool is fostered on the basis of its language/thought and embodiment theoretical foundations to implement its application potential. An experimental method emerges, which adapts textual identification procedures (Steen 1999, 2010; Ferrari 2007, 2018; Pragglejaz 2007) to an integrated psychological approach (Rogers 2003[1951]; Perls, Hefferline and Goodman 1951). A psychometric test is presented to evaluate the transformative power of ‘integrated metaphor’ in counselling.
Keywords: conceptual metaphor, embodiment, integration, transformation, personal development, awareness
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Metaphor and practice, an overview
    • Existing Methodological Proposals using metaphor in the ‘psycho-practice’
    • Unexplored Potential? Towards an implemented definition of conceptual metaphor as ‘integrated’
  • 2.Redefining metaphor, for the sake of practice
  • 3.Metaphor-based and -driven counselling: Sketching a methodological framework
  • 4.Feedback on the transformative power of metaphor
  • 5.Discussion
  • Appendix
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 July 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.87.07fer
References (83)
References
Bandler, Richard and John Grinder. 1975. Patterns of the hypnotic techniques of Milton H. Erickson M.D. Vol1 Cupertano, CA: Meta Publications.Google Scholar
Barsalou, Lawrence W. 2008. “Grounded Cognition.” Annual Review of Psychology 59: 617–45. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bayne, Rowan and Kate L. Thompson. 2000. “Counsellor response to clients’ metaphors: An evaluation and refinement of Strong’s model.” Counselling Psychology Quarterly 13 (1): 37–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barker, Philip. 1985. Using Metaphors in Psychotherapy. New York: Brunner/Mazel.Google Scholar
Boone, Rebecca K. and Vicki E. Bowman. 1997. “Therapeutic metaphors: Gateways to understanding.” International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling 19(3): 313–327. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Burns, George W. 2005. 101 Stories for Kids an Teens. Using Metaphor in Therapy. Hoboken NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Cameron-Bandler, Leslie. 1985. Solutions: Practical and effective antidotes for sexual and relationship problems. San Rafael: Future Pace.Google Scholar
Charteris-Black, Jonathan. 2012a. “Forensic deliberations on ‘purposeful metaphor.” Metaphor and the Social World 2: 1–21. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2012b. “Shattering the bell jar: Metaphor, gen-der and depression.” Metaphor and Symbol 27 (3): 199–216. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Charteris-Black Jonathan. 2016. “The ‘dull roar’ and the ‘burning barbed wire pantyhose; Complex metaphor in accounts of chronic pain.” In Mixing Metaphor. (Metaphor in Language, Cognition, and Communication), ed. by Raymond W. Gibbs, 155–176. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Clarkson, Petruska and Jennifer Mackewn. 1993. Key Figures in Counselling and Psychotherapy. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Eynon, Terri. 2001. “Metaphor: The impossible translation?” British Journal of Psychotherapy 17 (3): 353–364. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Erickson, Milton H. 1935. “A study of an experimental neurosis hypnotically induced in a case of ejaculatio praecox.” British Journal of Medical Psychology 15: 34–50. Also in Advanced Techniques of Hypnosis and Therapy: Selected Papers of Milton H. Erickson, M.D., ed. by Jay Haley (1967). New York: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
1952/1980. “Deep hypnosis and its induction”. In Leslie M. LeCron (Ed.) 1952. Experimental hypnosis. New York: Macmillan. Reprinted in Ernest L. Rossi (Ed.). 1980. The Collected Papers of Milton H. Erickson on Hypnosis. Vol. 1. The Nature of Hypnosis and Suggestion: 139-167. New York: Irvington.Google Scholar
1944. “The method employed to formulate a complex story for the induction of the experimental neurosis.” Journal of Genetic Psychology 31: 67–84. Also in Advanced Techniques of Hypnosis and Therapy: Selected Papers of Milton H. Erickson, M.D., ed. by Jay Haley (1967). New York: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
Ferendo, Frank J. 2007. “Integral Medicine: body, mind & emotions.” In Holistic Perspectives & Integral Theory. On seeing what is, ed. by Frank J. Ferendo, 105–112. Westerly, Rhode Island: Process Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Ferrari, Federica. 2007. “Metaphor at Work in the Analysis of Political Discourse. Investigating a ‘preventive war’ persuasion strategy.” Discourse & Society 18(5): 603–625. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2012. “‘Through a Woman’s Eyes’ Narratives of the Nation: Gender as and Beyond a Category of Analysis.” Journal of Multicultural Discourses 7(3): 243–62. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018. Metaphor and Persuasion in Strategic Communication: Sustainable Perspectives. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(forthcoming). “The ‘transformative’ power of ‘integrated metaphor’: applying and measuring its implemented potential” To appear in Dennis, Tay (Ed.) “Critical, conceptual, and applicative perspectives on metaphor and mental health”, Proposed Special Issue for Metaphor and the Social World. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Fine, Harold J, Howard R. Pollio and Charles H. Simkinson. 1973. “Figurative language, metaphor and psychotherapy.” Psychotherapy: Research and Practice 10: 87-91.Google Scholar
Fothergill, Rick. 2012. “Oxford guide to metaphors in CBT: building cognitive bridges.” British Journal of Guidance & Counselling 40(1): 104-106.Google Scholar
Gallese, Vittorio and George Lakoff. 2005. “The Brain’s Concepts: The Role of the Sensory-Motor System in Conceptual Knowledge.” Cognitive Neuropsychology 21 (4): 455–479. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, Raymond W. 2006a. Embodiment and Cognitive Science. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
2006b. “Metaphor Interpretation as Embodied Simulation.” Mind and Language 21(3): 434–458. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gonçalves, Oscar F. and Michael. H. Craine. 1990. “The Use of Metaphors in Cognitive Therapy.” Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: An International Quarterly 4(2): 135–149. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gordon, David. 1978. Therapeutic metaphors. Cupertino: Meta Publications.Google Scholar
Gore, Neil S. 1977. “Psychological functions of metaphors.” Dissertation Abstracts International 38: 2861-13. (University Microfilms No. 77-26, 248)Google Scholar
Hayes, Jill. 2011. “Moving the metaphor: An act of surrender.” Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy 6(2): 117–127. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haley, Jay. 1987. Problem-Solving Therapy. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Holmes, Jeremy. 1985. “The language of psychotherapy: metaphor, ambiguity, wholeness.” British Journal of Psychotherapy 1(4): 240–254. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kopp, Sheldon B. 1972. If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him! Palo Alto, CA: Science & Behavior Books.Google Scholar
Kopp, Richard R. 1995. Metaphor therapy. Using Client-Generated Metaphors in Psychotherapy. Bristol (PA): Brunnel/Mazel (Taylor & Francis Group).Google Scholar
Kopp, Richard R. and Michael J. Craw. 1998. “Metaphoric language, metaphoric cognition, and cognitive therapy.” Psychotherapy 35(3): 306–311. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kövecses, Zoltan. 2000. Metaphor and Emotion: Language, Culture and Body in Human Feeling. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George. 1987. Women, Fire and Dangerous Things. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1993. The contemporary theory of metaphor. In Metaphor and Thought (2nd edition), ed. by Andrew Ortony, 202–251. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1997. How Unconscious Metaphorical Thought Shapes Dreams. In Cognitive Science and the Unconscious, ed. by Dan J. Stein, 89–120. Washington, D.C/ London, England: American Psychiatric Press.Google Scholar
. 2008. The Neural Theory of Metaphor. In The Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor & Thought, ed. by Raymond W. Gibbs, 17–38. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2009. The Political Mind. New York: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
. 2009R. “The Neural Theory of Metaphor.” Report: January, 2009. An earlier version appeared in: The Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thought, 2008, ed. by Raymon W. Gibbs, 17–38. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. 1999. Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenges to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
. 2003 [1980]. Metaphors we live by. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Langer, Susanne. K. 1948. Philosophy in a New Key. New York: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
1957. Problems of Art. New York: Charles Scriber’s Sons.Google Scholar
Lankton, Stephen R. 1980. Practical magic: a translation of neuro-linguistic programming into clinical psychotherapy. Cupertino: Meta Publications.Google Scholar
Lankton, Stephen R. and Carol H. Lankton 1983. The answer within: A clinical framework of Ericksonian hypnotherapy. New York. Brunner/Mazel.Google Scholar
Levitt, Heidi, Yifaht Korman and Lynne Angus. 2000. “A metaphor analysis in treatments of depression: Metaphor as a marker of change.” Counselling Psychology Quarterly 13(1): 23–35. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lewin, Bertram D. 1971. “Metaphor, Mind, and Manikin.” Psychoanalytic Quarterly 40: 6-39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liu, Liang, Xudong Zhao and John K. Miller. 2014. "Use of metaphors in Chinese family therapy: a qualitative study." Journal of Family Therapy 36 (S1): 65-85. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Long, Philippa S. and Georgia Lepper. 2008. “Metaphor in psychoanalytic psychotherapy: A comparative study of four cases by a practitioner-researcher.” British Journal of Psychotherapy 24(3): 343–364. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Loue, Sana. 2008. The Transformative Power of Metaphor in Therapy. New York: Springer Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Martin, Jack, Anne L. Cummings and Ernest T. Hallberg. 1992. “Therapists' intentional use of metaphor: Memorability, clinical impact, and possible epistemic/motivational functions.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 60: 143-145.Google Scholar
Mathieson, Lindsay C. and Marie L. Hoskins. 2005. “Metaphors of change in the context of eating disorders: Bridging understandings with girls’ perceptions.” Canadian Journal of Counselling 39(4): 260–274.Google Scholar
Perls, Frederick S., Ralph F. Hefferline, and Paul, Goodman 1951. Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality. New York: Julian Press.Google Scholar
Perls, Frederick S., Ralph Hefferline and Paul Goodman. 1973. The Gestalt Approach & Eye Witness to Therapy. New York, NY: Bantam Books.Google Scholar
Pernicano, Pat. 2010. Metaphorical stories for child therapy: Of magic and miracles. Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson.Google Scholar
Pragglejaz Group 2007. “MIP: A Method for Identifying Metaphorically Used Words in Discourse.” In Metaphor and Symbol 22(1), 1–39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Råbu, Marit, Hanne Haavind and Per-Einar Binder. 2013. “We have travelled a long distance and sorted out the mess in the drawers: Metaphors for moving towards the end in psychotherapy.” Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 13 (1): 71–80. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rasmussen, Brian and Lynne Angus. 1996. “Metaphor in psychodynamic psychotherapy with borderline and non-borderline clients: A qualitative analysis.” Psychotherapy 33(4): 521–530. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reider, Norman. 1972. “Metaphor as Interpretation.” Journal of Psycho-Analysis 53: 463–469.Google Scholar
Reynolds, Frances. 1996. “Working with movement as a metaphor: Understanding the therapeutic impact of physical exercise from a gestalt perspective.” Counselling Psychology Quarterly 9(4): 383–390. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Stephen D. 1987. “Therapeutic Metaphors: A Counseling Technique.” I.A.R.A. XX: 61–72.Google Scholar
Roffman, Andrew E. 2008. “Men are Grass. Bateson, Erickson, Utilization and Metaphor.” American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis 50(3): 247–257. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rogers, Carl. 2003 [1951]. Client-centered Therapy. London: Constable.Google Scholar
Schoeneman, Thomas J., Janel Putnam, Ian Rasmussen, Nina Sparr and Stephanie Beechem. 2012. “A Fire in the blood: Metaphors of Bipolar Disorder in Jamison’s An Unquiet Mind.” Journal of Medical Humanities 33(3): 185–205. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Semino, Elena. 2010. “Descriptions of Pain, Metaphor, and Embodied Simulation.” Metaphor & Symbol 25: 205–226. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spence, Donald P. 1993. “The Metaphorical Nature of Psychoanalytic Theory”. In Essential Papers on Literature and Psychoanalysis, ed. by Emanuel Berman, 102–115. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Stott, Richard, Warren Mansell, Paul Salkovskis, Anna Lavender and Sam Cartwright-Hatton. 2010. Oxford Guide to Metaphors in CBT: Building Cognitive Bridges. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Steen, Gerard J. 1999. “From linguistic to conceptual metaphor in five steps.” In Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics, ed. by Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr. and Gerard J. Steen, 55–77. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Steen, Gerard. 2008. “The Paradox of metaphor: Why we need a three-dimensional model of metaphor.” Metaphor and Symbol 23: 213–241. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Strong, Tom. 1989. “Metaphors and client change in counseling.” International Journal for the Advancement of Counseling 12: 203–213. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tay, Dennis. 2012. “Applying the Notion of Metaphor Types to Enhance Counseling Protocols. Journal of Counseling and Development: JCD”. Retrieved October 29, 2012, from [URL]
Thompson, Kellie. 2012. “Multi-agency information practices in children’s services: the metaphorical ‘jigsaw’ and professionals quest for a ‘full’ picture.” Child & Family Social Work. Article first published online: 13 JAN 2012, DOI: DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Torneke, N. 2017. Metaphor in the Practice. Oakland (CA): Context Press.Google Scholar
Turner, Mark and Gilles Fauconnier. 1999. “A mechanism of creativity.” Poetics Today 20(3): 397–418.Google Scholar
Ullman, Montague 1969. “Dreaming as Metaphor in Motion.” Arch Gen Psychiat 21: 697–703. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Parys, Hanna and Peter Rober. 2013. “Micro-analysis of a therapist-generated metaphor referring to the position of a parentified child in the family.” Journal of Family Therapy. 35(1): 89–113. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Voth, Harold M. 1970. “The Analysis of Metaphor.” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 18(3): 59–621. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Young, J. Scott and L. Dianne Borders. 1998. “The impact of metaphor on clinical hypothesis formation and perceived supervisory characteristics.” Counselor Education and Supervision 37(4): 238–256. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Witztum, Eliezer O., Onno Van Der Hart and Barbara Friedman. 1988. “The Use of Metaphors in Psychotherapy.” Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy 18 (4): 270–290. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zeig, Jeffrey K. 1980. A teaching seminar with Milton H. Erickson, M. D. New York: Bruner/Mazel, Inc.Google Scholar
Zohar, Danah and Ian Marshall. 2001. Spiritual Intelligence: the Ultimate Intelligence. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Hammond, Kay & Julie Trafford
2024. Dancing in a red dress: Empowering metaphors of academics’ experiences of the manuscript peer review process. Higher Education Research & Development 43:3 ► pp. 688 ff. DOI logo
Ferrari, Federica, Mariangela Picciuolo & Daniele Bigi
2022. Improving text comprehension in ESL learners: a multichannel approach. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 16:1 ► pp. 82 ff. DOI logo
Ferrari, Federica
2020. The ‘transformative’ power of ‘integrated metaphor’ in counselling. Metaphor and the Social World 10:2 ► pp. 292 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.