Clients often come to therapy because of negative associations and patterns (negative metaphors). But in my own work, I find it helpful to go deeper… into a client’s innate positive (rather than negative) metaphoric associations. Fifty years of outstanding research by George Lakoff and others has demonstrated how metaphors form the basis of our cognition, [ Read more … ]
psychology of metaphor
17 potent, inspiring and relatively unknown books on the power of art, imagination, learning, and metaphor
In alphabetical order, 17 potent, inspiring, and relatively unknown books on the power of art, imagination, learning, and metaphor. Enjoy. The Aesthetic Dimension: Towards a Critique of Marxist Aesthetics by Herbert Marcuse Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi by Henry Corbin Animals of the Four Windows: Integrating Thinking, Sensing, [ Read more … ]
To view the world compassionately, we need the undeveloped capacities of our right cerebral hemisphere
To my mind, one of the most paradigm-changing statements of the 20th century was from Nobel laureate and neuroscientist Roger Sperry: There appears to be two modes of thinking, verbal and nonverbal, represented separately in left and right hemispheres, respectively. Our educational system, and science in general, tends to neglect the nonverbal form of intellect. [ Read more … ]
“Metaphor is the secret of all life.” ~ Martin Foss
“[Metaphor] is the secret of all life. It is the innermost secret of the life of God himself.” ~ Martin Foss “The present is not a phase in time. It is the tension by which past and future are metaphorically united and overcome.” ~ Martin Foss In 2007 I accidentally discovered Martin Foss’s profound [ Read more … ]
finding solid ground… when you’re navigating the unknown
Navigating uncertain terrain. Six years ago, I was diagnosed with an ovarian tumor the size of a cantaloupe. I was (understandably) scared. I work with metaphor with my clients. The metaphor that showed up was an image: I saw myself walking through uncertain terrain, but there was solid ground under my feet. The image said: [ Read more … ]