Psychotherapeutic Metaphors: A Guide To Theory And Practice

Philip Barker

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135063481
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy
• Index: Psychology

Provides a theoretical and practical introduction to the use of metaphors in therapy, outlining which clinical situations lend themselves to the use of metaphorical strategies and how to use metaphors to develop rapport between therapist and client.

1

METAPHORS IN HUMAN COMMUNICATION

A story is told of an ancient King of Egypt who lost his eyesight. His doctors could not cure him. Then a physician from the East arrived. After examining the King, he said he could prepare an ointment, made from a golden-headed fish swimming somewhere in the sea, that would restore the King's eyesight.

Every fishing vessel was pressed into service and many fish were caught. But none had a golden head. Then, on the final day before the physician must leave, the King's son decided to cast his net into the water once more. To his amazement, in his net he saw a fish with a golden head. “Quick,” he said to himself, “I must take this fish to the palace before the physician returns to his home.” But as he was placing the fish in a bowl of water, the fish looked up at him with sad, pleading eyes. Suddenly, he knew that he must spare the fish's life. He threw it back into the sea.

When the King heard of this, he was angry and condemned his son to death. But the Queen decided she must save the prince's life. Dressing him in ordinary clothes, and filling his pockets with gold coins, she put him on a ship that was sailing to a distant land.

As he was leaving, she gave him one last piece of advice: “Do not employ any servant who wants to be paid every month.”

The prince thought his mother's advice strange, but long experience had taught him that what she advised always proved sound.

At last the ship arrived at its destination—a beautiful land with forests, fields and neat houses. The prince fell in love with the place and bought one of the houses.

Many servants offered their services, but all asked to be paid monthly. Then, one day an Arab came, imploring the prince to hire him.

“I do not seek money,” the Arab said. “Please wait until the end of the year and then decide what my services have been worth to you.” The prince knew he must hire him.

On the other side of the mountains that bordered the land, there was a desert ravaged by a sea monster. The ruler of the land had many times sent soldiers to ambush and kill the monster, but they had always fallen asleep before the monster had appeared. Punishing the soldiers had not solved the problem.

Eventually, the ruler proclaimed a large reward for anyone who killed the monster. So the Arab went to the ruler and asked, “If my master slays the monster, what reward will you give him?”

“Whatever he desires,” answered the ruler.

That night, the Arab covered himself with an ointment that made his skin itch so severely that it was impossible for him to go to sleep. He waited, hiding behind a huge rock. In due course, the monster appeared out of the sea. It was hideous—part bird, part beast and part serpent. It moved steadily forward, passing over the rock where the Arab was waiting. At just the right moment, the Arab jumped up and plunged his dagger into the flesh behind the monster's ear, wounding him fatally. He cut off the monster's ears and took them to his master.

“Take these to the ruler and tell him that they are the ears of the monster who was terrorizing the land on the other side of the mountain,” he said.

“But it was not I that killed the monster,” said the prince. “It was you.”

The prince did not like taking credit for what he had not done, but the Arab prevailed upon him to do so.

The ruler was delighted and even offered the young man his daughter's hand in marriage. The prince declined, asking instead for a ship to take him to see the world. The prince and his servant visited many lands. At length, they reached a great Kingdom. The prince learned that the King's daughter was the most beautiful princess in the world and resolved to ask for her hand in marriage.

Taking with him some of the fine jewels the ruler had given him, he sought an audience with the King. With his faithful servant behind him, he presented the King with the jewels and made his request, which the King granted.

“But I must tell you,” the King said, “that my daughter has already been through over one hundred marriage ceremonies and not one of the men she married lived for more than twelve hours.”

The prince thought of withdrawing his request, but his trusted Arab servant prevailed upon him not to do so.

“Do not be concerned about what the King says, but take his daughter for your bride,” his servant told him.

So the prince told the King, “Luck must change some time, and who would not risk his life for the hand of one so perfect as your daughter?”

The wedding took place that very evening. After the marriage, the prince and his bride retired to their chamber. It was a clear, moonlit night and the prince walked over to the window. Suddenly, he saw a shroud lying on the ground. On it were embroidered his initials and beside it two men were digging a long and narrow hole. Suddenly the prince realized what it was—it was his grave!

Speechless and afraid, the prince turned slowly towards his bride. At that moment, a small black snake darted out of the princess’ mouth and wriggled towards him. But the Arab had hidden himself in the room, suspecting that something of this sort would happen. Quick as lightning, he seized the serpent with a pair of pincers he held in his left hand, while he cut off its head with a knife.

The King was amazed next morning to find that his new son-in-law was still alive.

“I was sure that luck would turn some day,” said the prince.

After that, the princess and her new husband lived happily together, hunting, sailing, and playing.

One day, a messenger arrived bringing news that the prince's father, the King of Egypt, had died and the prince had been proclaimed King. His mother asked that he return at once. The prince told his father-in-law and the King was delighted to discover that his son-in-law was the King of a great country. He ordered a ship to be made ready to take the young couple home.

When the couple arrived home, the Queen was overjoyed to see her son once more. So, too, were the people, who had suffered great hardships under their former ruler. The new King soon found himself busy with the affairs of state. He was very happy in his new life, until one day his faithful Arab servant came to him and said he must leave.

The young King was dismayed.

“Surely you will not leave me after all we have been through together,” he said.

“Alas, I must,” his servant replied. “I have received a summons that I dare not disobey.”

“In that case, I cannot keep you. But please take with you everything I have that you desire, for without your help I should have long ago been dead.”

“And without you,” replied the Arab, “I also would have been dead, for I am the golden-headed fish.”

Fairy tales are but one variety of metaphor. They offer the reader or the listener messages, which are presented indirectly. The fairy tale above is but one of many that could have been quoted. What are its merits? While they are no more and no less than those of many other tales, examining them may show how effective they can be as both subtle and elegant means of making points. At the same time, they can be entertaining and if, for some reason, the reader or listener fails to take the points the tale aspires to make, little has been lost. Indeed something may have been gained if the tale has provided enjoyment.

The main point the tale of The Golden-Headed Fish makes is obvious enough—one good deed is often repaid by other good deeds done in return. Surely, though, it makes that point more powerfully than the simple statement in the foregoing sentence! It does so in part because of its greater length—though the version above is much abbreviated. As the tale unfolds, the reader may wonder what will happen next and, in particular, what the connection is between the prince's adventures after he flees from the wrath of his father and the experiences he has subsequently. The, perhaps unexpected, “punch line” at the end then makes its point with special force.

Along the way, the story makes many other points. It illustrates, without overt mention, the virtues of loyalty and trust. It also suggests that we may benefit by taking the advice of our mothers and, probably by extension, that of others who care about us and are older and wiser—even when the advice seems strange and its value is difficult to comprehend. It extols the expression of gratitude, and advocates original approaches to difficult and resistant problems—as illustrated by the Arab's idea of covering himself with an irritant ointment to keep him awake while he awaited the arrival of the sea monster. It does all these things without directly giving any advice or making any suggestions. The wealth of fairy tales that is our common heritage and the fascination they hold for many people are surely evidence of their value.

There is nothing new about the use of metaphor in human communication. The oldest known major recorded work of literature is the epic tale, Gilgamesh. This was written on clay tablets in cuneiform (that is, wedge-shaped script) at least 1300 years before Homer recounted the Iliad. The first of these tablets was discovered when, during the excavation of Ninevah starting in 1845, the library of Ashurbanipal, the last great King of Assyria, was discovered. Many versions of this story, in a variety of languages, have been discovered since then. It is believed by scholars that the adventures of Gilgamesh were first written down about 2100 B.C. (Rosenberg, 1986). The epic is too long by far to be recounted here, but it is probably not by chance that this oldest surviving piece of literature contains many messages conveyed metaphorically.

Gilgamesh is a tale of temptation by Ishtar, perhaps the earliest recorded femme fatale; of fights with monsters; of the quest for immortality or eternal youth; of friendship and the pain we suffer when our friendships are ended by death; of how we can often achieve with the help of others that which we could not do on our own.

Writing of Gilgamesh, Rosenberg (1986) suggests that:

...it reaffirms the similarities in human nature and human values across time and space [and it] reveals the importance of friendship and love, pride and honor, adventure and accomplishment, and also the fear of death and the wish for immortality.... (p. 182)

What struck me on reading Gilgamesh was how little has changed in the last 4000 years. On Saturday mornings, our children may sit in front of their television sets and watch the present-day heroes—the Power Rangers, Batman, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles—defeating monsters of one sort or another. The powers of good and evil and the clashes between them are depicted in the metaphors of the 1990s, but the messages have not changed much. The possibility, even the inevitability, of good overcoming evil; the value of friendships and loyalty; the fear of death—all are much the same today as in 2100 B.C.

The story of Gilgamesh is worth reading, not just because it is the oldest major literary work of which we know, but because of the powerful way it makes its points. How much more power such tales have than, for example, simple statements that “love and friendship are important!”

The literature of the world is replete with tales that carry their message through the power of metaphor. The authors whose work is preserved in the Bible used metaphor to the fullest. The Book of Job, one of the Bible's oldest books, is surely a metaphor for the relationship between God and people. Many biblical metaphors, for example, the story of “David and Goliath” or the parable of “The Good Samaritan,” have been powerful enough and have had enough continuing relevance to the human condition that they have become a part of our everyday language. Greek mythology, fairy tales, and proverbs all convey meaning, often very powerfully, metaphorically.

Stories and other metaphorical devices may suggest ideas subliminally. Many authors, for example, Watzlawick (1978) and Mills and Crowley (1986), believe that they are ways of communicating with the “right brain”—that is, the right cerebral hemisphere.

There is evidence that the two cerebral hemispheres process information in different ways (Sperry, 1968). These have been linked to the “two languages,” about which Watzlawick (1978) writes as follows:

There are thus two languages involved. The one, in which for instance this sentence is expressed, is objective, definitional, cerebral, logical, analytic; it is the language of reason, of science, explanation and interpretation, and therefore the language of most psychotherapy. The other...is much more difficult to define—precisely because it is not the language of definition. We might call it the language of imagery, of metaphor, or pars pro toto, perhaps of symbols, but certainly of synthesis and totality, and not of analytical dissection, (pp. 14–15)

It is widely believed that these two languages are processed in, respectively, the left and the right hemispheres of the brain. For the practicing psychotherapist, however, the anatomical and neurological basis of this may be less important than the knowledge that the two types of language exist. This concept helps explain why, when people clearly understand intellectually (that is, with their “left brain,” if we accept the above hypothesis) that a certain course of action is advisable, they nevertheless often find themselves compelled by forces outside their conscious control to take a different course—and one that may have unsatisfactory results. All t...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• BRUNNER/MAZEL BASIC PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE SERIES
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. METAPHORS IN HUMAN COMMUNICATION
• 2. THE USE OF METAPHORS IN PSYCHOTHERAPY
• 3. THE TYPES OF METAPHOR
• 4. INDICATIONS FOR THE USE OF METAPHORS
• 5. BASIC PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF METAPHORS
• 6. BEFORE YOU START: THE PREREQUISITES
• 7. USING THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF METAPHOR
• 8. TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF THE DELIVERY OF METAPHORS
• 9. PITFALLS AND HOW TO AVOID THEM...
• 10. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
• Recommended Reading
• References
• Index