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“Dizziness of Freedom” : Anxiety Disorders and Metaphorical Meaning-making

Moskaluk, Kalina LU ; Zlatev, Jordan LU and van de Weijer, Joost LU orcid (2022) In Metaphor and Symbol 37(4). p.303-322
Abstract

Would metaphors used in the context of psychotherapy by people who experience various forms of anxiety disorders differ from those used by people who experience stress? We investigated this question with the help of the Motivation & Sedimentation Model (MSM), a theory of meaning-making developed within the synthetic new discipline of cognitive semiotics. The analysis of a sample of ten transcripts of psychotherapy sessions concerning the topic of anxiety, and a comparable sample concerning stress, showed a significantly stronger proportion of conventionalized metaphors in the stress sample, and a marginally significant difference in the number of innovative metaphors in the anxiety sample. These results suggest that lived experience... (More)

Would metaphors used in the context of psychotherapy by people who experience various forms of anxiety disorders differ from those used by people who experience stress? We investigated this question with the help of the Motivation & Sedimentation Model (MSM), a theory of meaning-making developed within the synthetic new discipline of cognitive semiotics. The analysis of a sample of ten transcripts of psychotherapy sessions concerning the topic of anxiety, and a comparable sample concerning stress, showed a significantly stronger proportion of conventionalized metaphors in the stress sample, and a marginally significant difference in the number of innovative metaphors in the anxiety sample. These results suggest that lived experience of an anxiety disorder or another form of maladaptive anxiety affects metaphorical meaning-making, and manifests itself in spontaneous metaphor use. Furthermore, as a result of the conceptual and the empirical investigations of the topic, we propose novel theoretical and operational definitions of the notion of metaphoricity.

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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Metaphor and Symbol
volume
37
issue
4
pages
20 pages
publisher
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
external identifiers
  • scopus:85141728240
ISSN
1092-6488
DOI
10.1080/10926488.2021.2006045
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
1a3df766-faa8-470f-8194-a36cd1056e1b
date added to LUP
2022-12-07 11:58:48
date last changed
2023-12-02 23:09:18
@article{1a3df766-faa8-470f-8194-a36cd1056e1b,
  abstract     = {{<p>Would metaphors used in the context of psychotherapy by people who experience various forms of anxiety disorders differ from those used by people who experience stress? We investigated this question with the help of the Motivation &amp; Sedimentation Model (MSM), a theory of meaning-making developed within the synthetic new discipline of cognitive semiotics. The analysis of a sample of ten transcripts of psychotherapy sessions concerning the topic of anxiety, and a comparable sample concerning stress, showed a significantly stronger proportion of conventionalized metaphors in the stress sample, and a marginally significant difference in the number of innovative metaphors in the anxiety sample. These results suggest that lived experience of an anxiety disorder or another form of maladaptive anxiety affects metaphorical meaning-making, and manifests itself in spontaneous metaphor use. Furthermore, as a result of the conceptual and the empirical investigations of the topic, we propose novel theoretical and operational definitions of the notion of metaphoricity.</p>}},
  author       = {{Moskaluk, Kalina and Zlatev, Jordan and van de Weijer, Joost}},
  issn         = {{1092-6488}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{303--322}},
  publisher    = {{Lawrence Erlbaum Associates}},
  series       = {{Metaphor and Symbol}},
  title        = {{“Dizziness of Freedom” : Anxiety Disorders and Metaphorical Meaning-making}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2021.2006045}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/10926488.2021.2006045}},
  volume       = {{37}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}