Can cognitive linguistics meaningfully inform clinical psychology: Metaphors in the conceptual system and the therapy office.

摘要

Metaphor is an effective technique in clinical psychology (CP). Cognitive linguistics (CL) is a theory of mind based partly in metaphor. This theoretical paper suggests that CL can help CP in three ways: by providing a yet unexplored theoretical basis of metaphor use, by explaining the effectiveness of metaphor use, and by offering improvements of metaphor use. A comprehensive literature review of metaphor use in CP, and of CL's Generalized Metaphor Theory is included. Cognitive psychology and cognitive science, with regard to language, are also discussed. This paper concludes that CL is somewhat theoretically compatible with CP. CL can explain much of the effectiveness of metaphor in clinical psychology. CL can offer improved practical applications of metaphor use in CP.