Critical, conceptual, and collaborative perspectives on metaphor and mental health

Abstract

A striking difference between physical and mental healthcare (broadly defined) is that processes and outcomes in the latter rely to a large extent on language use. Consider the following extract from the prototypical mental healthcare context of a psychological counseling session.Client: I'm super, super sensitive the last four or five days. I haven't been around people much, and it's kind of purposeful, I think. I just don't want to be around them, because I don't really feel like talking and because, well, they are something other than -it's fun to talk to them when I've got my act together, but when I don't, it's like it takes my mind away from what I'm doing. And I've had enough trouble, I don't want to lose track of it any more. But I was noticing on the way home that, from one song on the radio to the next, my mood shifts, sometimes almost 180 degrees. And it's like, the way I am right now, just the slightest little thing can change my emotions. It's like a feather in a rapid stream, which I don't like. I hate the instability of it. And yet, there doesn't seem to be any This is the Pre-Published Version.

Introduction: Cognitive Linguistics and Beyond – from Conceptual Mechanisms to Theoretical Aporias

“…The chapter by Justyna Wawrzyniuk studies metaphorical objectifications of women in stand-up comedy. In doing so, the author contributes to the growing body of research which aims to show the role and significance of metaphor in various social discourses and contexts such as politics (Perrez et al, 2019), mental healthcare (Tay, 2020), business (Li & Zhu, 2021) or education (Ahlgren et al, 2021). Her investigation of metaphorical expressions collected from 30 performances by female North American comedians sheds light on the most common target (body and person) and source frames (place and food) used to metaphorically conceptualize women.…”

From War to Change, from Resistance to Resilience: Vicariance, Bricolage and Exaptation as New Metaphors to Frame the Post COVID-19 Era

“…Therefore, in these terms, it is apparent that illness (and COVID-19 in particular) may be exactly the type of subjective experience that could be conceptualized and emotionally experienced through metaphors (Tay 2016). To give an example, when Boris Johnson talked about "fighting" in his 17 March 2020 speech, he was intending to reduce the infection, disease, and death of the new coronavirus as it was a violent physical confrontation with an opponent.…”