Metaphor in Clinical Dialogue, lecture, Summer School of Psychotherapy Research, Wien

Counselling, Psychiatric Clinical Evaluation and Psychotherapy all produce ¿Verbal Activity¿ that can be analyzed using Metaphor Analysis, based upon Lakoff & Johnson's cognitive theory of conceptual metaphor. Metaphor plays an active role in the assessment of common reasoning, symptoms and clinically relevant phenomena. Acceptance that metaphor is a genuine form of reasoning in the cognitive perspective could also provide psychologists, counsellors and clinicians with a viable medium for evaluating personality, and styles of thinking. In fact it is a common skill of every well trained clinician, recognizing, understanding and using clients' metaphors.