Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

I suggest the following working definition of metaphor in relation to the three modes
of representation presented in figure 3.1: The metaphoric language - the special
language used in verbal communication of imagery in all modalities - connects the
lexical and the image modes, as well as the enactive and the lexical modes. It is a
special discourse within verbal communication, enabling verbal representation of
imaginal and enactive experiences.
The so-called “Oneirotherapists” (Sheikh & Jordan 1983, Högberg 1991, - the term
covers ‘daydream therapies’ like Desoille’s “Directed daydream” and Leuner’s
“Guided affective Imagery”) use “extended visual fantasies in narrative form to obtain
information about the motivational system of the individual, including elements of
conflict, perceptual distortion, self-perception, and early memories.” (Sheikh &
Jordan, p. 401). I would go one step further and say that metaphoric language used to
report imagery is what makes the narrative possible. This quality is mentioned by
Ricoeur in The Rule of Metaphor (1977, p. 247). The headline is “Towards the
concept of ‘metaphorical truth’, and the assumption is:
“In service to the poetic function, metaphor is that strategy of discourse by
which language divests itself of its function of direct description in order to
reach the mythic level where its function of discovery is set free.... We can
presume to speak of metaphorical truth in order to designate the ‘realistic’
intention that belongs to the redescriptive power of poetic language.”
3.4.2 Levels of understanding. Psychotherapeutic levels of images and metaphors
Several authors have discussed how images and metaphors may function at specific
levels of experience or cognitive-emotional engagement in psychotherapy.
Summer (1988) made a distinction between four levels of imagery (experiences):
1. Abstract/aesthetic- with visual and kinaesthetic imagery
2. Psychodynamic- with memories and imagery on literal relationships
3. Perinatal - with somatic and/or existential experiences
4. Transpersonal - often peak experiences and universal symbolic imagery
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