Metaphors, Trauma and Symptoms

Book excerpt: This book investigates how victims of a large-scale traumatic event converge and diverge in metaphor use in describing their traumatic experiences. By combining qualitative and quantitative methods, the book identifies patterns that are shared by this group of trauma victims. By juxtaposing linguistic data with psychometric data, it also explores how metaphor use can vary with the speakers’ psychopathological symptoms. While metaphorical language has been a rare focus in clinical contexts, this book establishes metaphor use as a previously overlooked yet rewarding avenue for studying mental health communication.