[Neurons] 2021 Neurons #24 CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT METAPHORS

Sun May 9 23:57:52 EDT 2021

From: L. Michael Hall

2021 Neurons #24

May 10, 2021

How Metaphors are Meta-States #5

CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT METAPHORS

A long time I got a call from Dr. Martin Roberts on behalf of Richard
Bandler.  Martin said that Richard wanted me to review all of the NLP
literature on the Meta-Model and then we would co-author Magic Revisited.
That was 1996 and I immediately went to work reviewing everything I could
find that had been written since 1976 on the NLP Meta-Model of Language as
presented in The Structure of Magic. 

Part of the reason for this request to me, was that back in 1992 I had
written a series of articles on "Missing Elements of the Meta-Model" based
on what Alfred Korzybski had written about language.  Those articles were
republished in German and other languages.  Among the additions that I added
to the Extended Meta-Model that was published in 1997 was "metaphors."

Actually, how metaphors had been overlooked in the original work is a
mystery to me to this day.  After all, the founders had modeled Milton
Erickson who was a wizard at metaphors, especially therapeutic metaphors.
But even Perls is known for numerous metaphors (top dog, under-dog,
computer-mind, introjecting ideas by swallowing them whole and not chewing
them up, etc.).  And there then is Virginia with her "pot" full or empty,
people-making, the Satir categories- blamer, placator, etc. which she used
metaphorically.

Then there was the entire book, Therapeutic Metaphors, that modeled the
structure of isomorphic metaphors for healing and for transformation.  So
how in the world did the linguistic format of metaphors get passed over?
While I still do not know, what I knew was that it ought to be added to the
Extended Meta-Model.  And that's what I did, today it is in the book
Communication Magic and it was replicated in Magic Demystified by Frank
Pucelik and Byron Lewis.

Accordingly, just as with a nominalization, when you have a metaphor, it is
important to meta-model it.  What are the meta-model questions that you can
and should ask?  Here are some:

           What is the comparison? What is being compared to what?

           Who is offering the comparison? 

           How valid is the comparison? 

           What does the comparison highlight?  What does the comparison
hide?  

           What else is entailed in the metaphor?

In essence, as you are de-metaphoring the metaphor, you are seeking to
identify the real referent that is actually being talked about.  You are
using X as a metaphor for what?  What specifically are you talking about?

Now while metaphors can be fun, silly, humorous, and poetic, metaphors also
play a much more serious role in our lives.  Much more seriously they 

           Structure our concepts.  

           Set frames of references over different experiences.

           Imply and activate beliefs, decisions, intentions, and many
other meta-level formations. 

And it is precisely for that reason that we need to think critically about
metaphors.  If you don't you make yourself open to making false and untrue
comparisons and to inventing comparisons that may be unhealthy, even toxic.
I made a whole list of "bad" metaphors (Appendix B) in the book Thinking
Metaphorically, some examples:

"I'm so angry, I could explode."

"I can't face the future."

"My job is going downhill."

"Life has cheated me and I will always resent it."

It's easy to read or listen to such lines without recognizing the metaphor
within them.  Yet if you do, you tend to treat them as literal and as real.
But they are not.  They are not literal or real.  That's a good reason to
play with them.  Playing around with the metaphor can quickly reveal that
what you have in hand is a metaphorical map and not reality.  

"If you are that angry, what's stopping you from exploding?"  "If you do
explode, how big or small would the pieces be that would scatter around?"

If you can't face the future, then turn around this way.  That's better.
Now you are facing your past.  How does that feel?"

Metaphors are ways of thinking- ways of comparing and ways of imposing a
particular way of understanding upon something else.  It may work to make
things clear, it may not.  So be sure to run an ecology check on your
metaphor and be ready to invent more productive metaphors.  To your ability
to become an aware, insightful, and skillful metaphorian!

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

Neuro-Semantics 

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

Books can be purchased at www.neurosemantics.com 

Many other PDF books can be purchased at "The Shop" on
www.neurosemantics.com 

131688 NeuroSemantics ThinkingMetaphoricalyCover FRONT

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