LINGUIST List 22.4085
Wed Oct 19 2011
Diss: Applied Ling/Disc Analysis: Tay: 'Metaphor in Psychotherapy: ...'
Editor for this issue: Xiyan Wang
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1. Dennis Tay ,
Metaphor in Psychotherapy: Description and applications
Message 1: Metaphor in Psychotherapy: Description and applications
Date: 17-Oct-2011
From: Dennis Tay <dennis.taygmail.com>
Subject: Metaphor in Psychotherapy: Description and applications
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Institution: University of Otago
Program: Linguistics Section
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2011
Author: Dennis Tay
Dissertation Title: Metaphor in Psychotherapy: Description and applications
Dissertation URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10523/1901
Linguistic Field(s):
Applied Linguistics
Discourse Analysis
Dissertation Director:
Masataka Yamaguchi
Jennifer Jordan
John R Taylor
Dissertation Abstract:
The relationship between metaphor, language, and thought, as hypothesisedby cognitive linguists, requires detailed investigation of actual metaphoruse in different situations and contexts. Researchers have examinedmetaphors in contexts as diverse as economics, politics, art, science, andadvertising, both for the inherent interest in how metaphors functiontherein, and to interrogate cognitivist claims about the nature ofmetaphor. There has recently been an interest in furthering thisdescriptive imperative by considering the prescriptive aspects, orapplicability, of metaphor. The main question is how advancements inmetaphor theory can contribute to the judicious use of metaphors in theperformance of language constituted 'real world' activities.
This thesis undertakes a discourse analysis of metaphors in the verballyenacted mental health resource of psychotherapy. My primary linguisticobjective is to show how metaphors used in psychotherapy are shaped by itsnature, and inform aspects of metaphor theory in significant ways. On theother hand, although many therapists profess an interest in metaphors,therapeutic research has been perceptibly indifferent towards relevantadvancements in metaphor theory in the language sciences. The secondarytherapeutic objective of this thesis is therefore to show how a discourseanalytic approach to psychotherapeutic metaphors can potentially enhancetheir clinical use and management.
Aspects of metaphor theory to be discussed are 1) the ideational resourcesof metaphor, which concerns whether therapeutic metaphors are ultimatelyconstructed out of embodied, cultural, or individual-specific knowledge; 2)the rhetorical development of extended metaphors, which describes howsource-target associations are elaborated in strategic and patterned waysin therapeutic talk; 3) the variability and variation of metaphor, whichrefer to how therapists and patients flexibly switch between differentsources and targets, or innovate from conventional conceptual metaphors;and 4) the co-text of metaphors, which poses the question of how metaphorsinteract with co-textual elements (e.g. discourse markers) in their mutualconstitution of psychotherapeutic talk. Therapeutic implications stemmingfrom the above analyses include 1) how embodied, cultural, andindividual-specific knowledge can be harnessed in complementary fashion fortherapeutic purposes, 2) how rhetorical strategies can help therapistsguide their patients towards more useful elaborations of their ownmetaphoric conceptualisations, 3) how variability of metaphor use can beassociated with certain discourse objectives in psychotherapeuticinteraction, 4) how varying instantiations of conceptual metaphors used totalk about psychotherapy contributes a channel of feedback to therapeutictheorisation, and 5) how the naturalistic distribution of discourse markersin extended metaphors implies more effective ways of communicating them topatients. I conclude the thesis by offering a synthesised summary of thediscussion, highlighting emergent themes about the nature of metaphor inpsychotherapy, and suggesting future directions both for metaphor researchand psychotherapeutic practice.
Page Updated: 19-Oct-2011
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