In the flesh: The role of body and affect in metaphor formation and psychotherapeutic processes.
Item
-
Title
-
In the flesh: The role of body and affect in metaphor formation and psychotherapeutic processes.
-
Identifier
-
AAI3159255
-
identifier
-
3159255
-
Creator
-
Seckinger, Regine Anna.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Jeffrey Rosen
-
Date
-
2005
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Psychology, Clinical
-
Abstract
-
Theoretical in nature, this dissertation highlights the centrality of the body in psychological life and aims to advance a conceptual framework which supports the notion that the manner in which bodily experiences of affect are symbolized over the course of early development has bearing on the shape metaphors take in the clinical context.;While the psychoanalytic literature has customarily considered metaphor an intentionally employed, linguistic phenomenon, this dissertation utilizes a basic definition of metaphor as resulting from a process in which meaning is transferred from one 'object' or domain of experience to another, and advances the notion that metaphor in the clinical context is more akin to metaphor in the arts---a heterogeneous phenomenon which can be conceptualized as manifesting on verbal as well as nonverbal, and intentional as well as unintentional levels. Metaphoric communication then might be viewed as traveling along a continuum that reaches from the consciously conveyed to accidentally manifested. Regardless of its correlation with consciousness, I argue that meaning is 'carried over' which provides the clinician with an opportunity to discover how the bodily experience of affect and its developmental fate may have shaped the specific terrain of a patient's referential world.;Highly disguised clinical material drawn from the treatments of two patients will serve to illustrate these propositions, and psychoanalytic theory relevant to the subject will be reviewed and elaborated upon. My hope is that emphasizing the role of the bodily dimension of affect in subjective experience and broadening the meaning of metaphor in the clinical context may allow for a wider perspective on the quality of our patients' ways of being in the world and a more comprehensive understanding of therapeutic processes.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
