METAPHORIC REPRESENTATION OF GROUP THERAPY IN PSYCHOTERAPEUTIC DISCOURSE (BASED ON I. YALOM’S NOVEL THE SCHOPENHAUER CURE)

Abstract

The article focuses on investigating psychotherapeutic discourse in view of cognitive linguistic approach. The objective of the present research is to reveal and describe the range of the conceptual metaphors with the target domains THERAPEUTIC GROUP and GROUP THERAPY, objectified in the psychotherapeutic novel “The Schopenhauer Cure” (2005) by Irvin Yalom, a contemporary American existential psychiatrist and author of psychotherapeutic fiction and nonfiction. Yalom’s psychotherapeutic discourse is viewed as a special type of discourse combining the properties of scientific discourse of individual and group psychotherapy and fiction. The methodology of the practical analysis is based on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory. The article discusses the range of conventional metaphors (THERAPEUTIC GROUP IS A BEING WITH LIFE CYCLE, THERAPEUTIC GROUP IS A BOUNDED REGION IN SPACE, PURPOSE OF THERAPY IS DESTINATION, MEANS OF THERAPY ARE PATHS TO DESTINATION) and nonconventional author’s metaphors, based on the conventional metaphoric patterns (GROUP THERAPY IS A HUMAN BEING WITH BEHAVIORAL NORMS, THERAPEUTIC GROUP IS A SAFE AND COZY PLACE, THERAPEUTIC GROUP IS STAGE, GROUP THERAPY IS MOTION IN A LIMITED REGION OF SPACE → HERE AND NOW, GROUP THERAPY IS A HORISONTAL AND VERTICAL MOTION, GROUP THERAPY IS A TIME-BOUND JOURNEY). The author’s creative manifestations of the EVENT STRUCTURE METAPHOR, that describes processes in terms of space, motion, and force, have been discussed in the article from the perspective of four cognitive devices applied (elaboration, extending, questioning, and combining). The analysis has revealed the characteristic features of the group therapy, objectified metaphorically.