The nature of the book turns me toward testimony rather than review, because the book is where a change began for me. I thought 'Metaphors in Mind' had something to do with literary analysis, which is what I was looking for. I was thus a little disappointed when I first opened the book, but then I couldn't put it down (see. .. it's impossible to live outside metaphors). So compelling was its proposal, metaphor is reality, that for the first time in my more than fifty years, I sought a therapist who ascribed to its principles. By happy coincidence I was able to meet with James and Penny - two of the gentlest human beings I think I have ever met. What has changed is my relationship and response to the images I live with and have lived through, once I spoke what they were, and where they resided in me, and what it felt like living with them, and what needed to happen to dispell - those ghosts, bugaboos and, ah yes those very symbolic ties that bind and double bind ones consciousness. For an English teacher to obtain reality through the life that exists in words is an awesome and radical experience. Without the book though there wouldn't have been a beginning. .. or, so as not to try logic, there wouldn't have been such a beginning. 'Metaphors in Mind' is clear, precise and orderly, a succinct presentation of theory and practice, even for the lay reader. It's an extraordinary introduction, and perhaps a great beginning. Before me now in my classroom are the basic clean language iterations and questions to consider, perhaps, the life of the symbols within Gatsby or Hamlet or Elizabeth Bennett. (David Cisek, Forest Hills, New York)