Metaphorical Thinking | L Michael Hall PhD

Описание: METAPHORICAL THINKING
The Thinking That Hides
L. Michael Hall, PhD
 
One of the primary tools of the mind, and therefore of thinking itself, is one that you would lest suspect.  Who would ever think that a metaphor could be one of the most profound thinking processes?  And yet, if you speak the word slowly and listen really, really carefully, you will hear that within m-e-t-a-p-h-o-r is the word meta.  And that means what?  It means that you have to go meta—to higher levels of the mind to generate a metaphor.  That’s why your pets will not and cannot use metaphors!  Surprising isn’t it?  And you thought metaphors were just a way to add some juice to your speech!
 
Actually, you think, speak, conceptualize and dream in metaphors!  And via metaphors, you come to understand the most profound concepts.  Without metaphors to make comparisons with things you know, you’d be up a creek without a paddle.  It’s estimated that 25 percent of your words are metaphors (1 in every 4).  You are actually quite a metaphorian!
 
Further, metaphors are the holy grail of meaning-making.  That’s why if you listen really carefully to the metaphors that people use, you’ll discover that metaphors are relevatory—

∙           Metaphors reveals the worlds you live in.
∙           They reveal the way you think.
∙           They reveal your resources and constraints.
∙           They reveal hidden frames and invisible assumptions.
∙           They reveal a person’s meta-stating that create their states.
∙           They reveal the life that you’re living because in the end you live your metaphors.
∙           They reveal how you understand things, how you reason about things.