Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

In the BMGIM example a literal interpretation makes no sense (what is ‘a one-
legged life attitude’?), however a metaphorical interpretation (‘navigating in life
on only one leg’ -> having two legs works better!) makes sense for the client.
• (c) “tension in the relational function of the copula; between identity and
difference in the interplay of resemblance.“
In the BMGIM example the client’s life attitude (or coping strategy) is / is not
identical with the experience of the one-legged woman in the imagery. The
client is encouraged by the tension to reflect on her understanding of the
problem.
The metaphorical tension is lodged within the ‘copula’ (the ‘is’ = the ’being as’) 12 of
the utterance. This means that the reader (or client) knows or feels the tension of the
split reference. “In this way, the dynamism of meaning allowed access to the dynamic
vision of reality which is the implicit ontology of the metaphorical utterance.” (p.
297) 13 The tension is connected to the referential relationship of the metaphorical
statement to reality and the possibility of a ‘metaphorical truth’.
The metaphor is alive when it is ‘primary’, i.e. when it “links domains by connecting
insight and feeling, and what is known with what is only guessed at.” (Siegelman
1990, p. 3). This is also what Ricoeur found when he studied the phenomenon, and his
first book (1975) on the topic was called The Living Metaphor (La métaphore vive).
The question of how meaning is created in language was investigated through a
multidisciplinary study of metaphor, of which I have only mentioned a detail of the
theory, relevant in the context of this study: tension building is a basic feature of the
metaphor, which enables extension of meaning as well as creation of new meaning.
Ricoeur makes a distinction between symbol and metaphor, and his understanding of
the difference leads him to the following statement, which has profound meaning in a
psychotherapeutic context:
12 With a reference to Roman Jakobson Ricoeur relates the ’split reference’ inherent in the tension of
the copula to the traditional opening of the (oral) opening of a fairy tale: ’It was and it was not’ (p.
224).
13 The rich philosophical dimension in Ricoeurs metaphor study cannot be addressed here. For a
presentation and discussion of the ontological and epistemological aspects of the tension theory,
especially the relationship between metaphor, reality and truth, see McGaughey (1992).
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