Role of Metaphor in Communication, Language and Psychotherapy (Cross-disciplinary Analysis)

Abstract

The Metaphor, being a part of everyday life, permeates our whole existence: both everyday and scientific (especially philosophical and interdisciplinary) communication is unthinkable without it. One of the main aims of this article is to review the literature through which we can trace the changing role of me­taphor in science, philosophy and linguistics. Metaphoricity, being an invariable attribute of philosophical thought, was however for a long time perceived more as a natural property of speech and a necessary element of communication or an artistic technique, so most works on this topic focus on the analysis of metaphor at the border of philosophy and linguistics, therefore the article of­fers, besides the philosophical part, also the literary part of the review. The con­vergence of philosophy not only with literature but also with psychology, the de­sire of modern philosophers to comprehend the mysteries of the human psyche and thinking, which cannot be investigated and described without attempts to step into the space of the unconscious, has revived the use of metaphor as a way of cognition. The expanding role of psychotherapy as a word treatment has filled the idea of metaphor with new meanings, so the article also shows the psychotherapeutic function of metaphor. Modern hypnotherapy, the founder of which is M. Erikson, due to the ability of metaphors in the form of coded messages to enter into a dialogue with the unconscious of clients, uses them as a means of appeasing pain, developing creative solutions and harmonizing the internal state. The important task of this article is not only to analyze the sources (philosophical, psychological and literary), but also to bring them together in or­der to take a step in a complex, interdisciplinary study of this phenomenon. Through the study of the influence of metaphor on our language, cognition, com­munication patterns, and emotional states, we can take another step in under­standing the amazing mysteries of our brain and our creative unconscious.