Phenomenology of metaphors

Abstract

One of the most polemical issues of psychotherapy is its object. "Subjectivity", "motiva-tion", "behaviour", "fantasy" have been the answers offered by different approaches, and sometimes there is disagreement inside the sarne approach. And what about the method, which depends basically upon the definition applied to the object?

On the other hand, one can easily observe that the psychotherapist works mainly with words - as listener and speaker. This single fact points to a path that maybe allows a certain consensus even at practices considerably distant.

We are ·talking about meaning, something almos( omnípresent in day-to-day psychotherapy - even though it is not always explicit. li the assertion is plausible, we must question the production of meaning. Thus, the study of semantics would be quite profitable to the therapist. This work considers that the meaning ís prodúced ln speech by metaphors. This theory is examined through an example extracted from Greek mythology, taken as rational. The myths_of Oedipus and Theseus are compared to clarify the meanlngs oi parrlcíde/filicide through its "dismetaphorization".

Thus, we propose a methodological modal applicable to the psychotherapy, aiming to justily the possibility oi a stríct treatment oi speech, identifyíng its semantic spectrum.