Premium
Metaphor: Complete or Incomplete *
Author(s) -
Martin Graham
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
australian journal of family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1467-8438
pISSN - 0156-8779
DOI - 10.1002/j.1467-8438.1984.tb00092.x
Subject(s) - metaphor , action (physics) , process (computing) , ideal (ethics) , psychological intervention , family therapy , psychology , psychotherapist , epistemology , linguistics , computer science , philosophy , psychiatry , physics , quantum mechanics , operating system
Using metaphor in therapy, both in the process of joining with a family and as a process in itself within which interventions are delivered, can lead to extraordinary and sometimes unexpected behavioural change. Yet for the therapist beginning to consider the use of therapeutic metaphor the prospect must be daunting when, with a few notable exceptions, the literature suggests the ideal as a complex, isomorphic and often elegant story. This paper attempts to broaden yet simplify technique using clinical example to examine the use of metaphor in language and action in family therapy.