A map of living: Moving through the variations of life with the guidance of metaphors

Abstract

Metaphors are commonly used in psychotherapy, especially in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Moreover, people use metaphors spontaneously in their everyday lives when trying to understand and make sense of complex issues. Relational Frame Theory (RFT) allows an analysis of metaphors as relating relations, where establishing coordination between a more concrete or familiar semantic domain with a more challenging target domain has pragmatic effects. A total of 806 Spanish-speaking participants were asked to provide a metaphor about life and to explain how they understood this metaphor. Their responses were analysed using reflexive Thematic Analysis (TA). The RFT and contributions from the cognitive linguistics approach to metaphors were used to interpret the patterns identified in the discourse on life metaphors. Participants' metaphors were organised into four themes: (1) recognition of variation in life, (2) attempts to make sense of variation in life, (3) problems with variation in life, and (4) evaluation of life as essentially positive or negative. Metaphors to recognise the multiplicity of events within life use “container”-related source-networks. Meaning in life is denoted through using networks connected with “movement toward a destination”, “human/natural development”, “fiction”, and “game and sports”, whereas metaphors involving disruptions in such patterns of change denote meaninglessness. Metaphors may also use particular qualities of entities and objects to signal positive and negative aspects of life. A variety of experiences connected with the source-networks of metaphors may be involved in the transfer of stimulus functions to the target-network “life”. Qualitative analysis of life metaphors from the RFT perspective offers valuable insights on how metaphors function in everyday life and how they can be used in clinical work.