I came across the article below in my wanderings this morning. Initially, I was going to add it to Daniel's thread, wherein he is not only identifying with "Being Daniel" in the Lion's Den he is potentially attempting to communiciate his sense of isolation in the place he currently finds himself.. Metaphor featured very strongly in my own experience -- so strongly that I've often said it is the "universal language of schizophrenia". Mystics and trauma victims also speak metaphor, in part because their personal experience is simply "too big" to be conveyed by any other means.

Those of you who are coping with psychosis and/or schizophrenia can use this understanding to better understand your own experience. Those of you who are caregivers to those going through psychosis or schizophrenia can use this understanding to better communicate with your loved one. Not everything has to be interpreted literally; often a metaphorical interpretation is far more relevant and insightful.

For example... many individuals in the midst of a psychotic episode self-identify with being a religious figure such as Jesus Christ. If we consider what it is that Christ symbolizes we may gain a better understanding of what that individual is currently experiencing.

If your "schizophrenic" child / friend /spouse says to you, "Hey, I think I'm Jesus!" don't take it literally unless you're certain that you're Mary, your husband's name is Joseph, and you've got a donkey out in the garage instead of a Suburu.

Neither should you shut-them out and close down the conversation by insisting that they couldn't possibly be Jesus. Instead, ask them why they feel like they're Jesus. What you may find is that they're touching into a form of deep compassion; they may have become acutely aware of the suffering around them, perhaps as a result of their own. Alternatively, they may be feeling overwhelmed by a sense of unconditional love and acceptance or they may be tapping into a heretofore unknown and restorative strength within themselves. Compassion, Love, Redemption -- all these are characteristics of the figure we know as Christ.

The same holds true if the Devil shows up. What does the Devil represent? Fear, Terror, Evil. If someone encounters "the Devil" in a state of psychosis, it can be a means of expressing that they are encountering fear, terror and a sense of evil.

In the aftermath of my own experience I turned to my husband and said, "I think I'm Jesus and I just killed the Devil." What was I really saying? What I was really saying is, "I have just used Love to conquer Fear." I simply expressed that sentiment using metaphor because it was all I was capable of in that moment.

Anyway... some excerpts from the article to illustrate my point.

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Abstract
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological condition which may result from experiencing a traumatic event. Experts agree that individuals who suffer from PTSD often communicate using metaphors because it’s difficult to talk about the trauma in literal terms. Since communication about the traumatic event facilitates recovery, we can help individuals recover from trauma by learning to communicate with them using metaphorical language. This principle also applies to individuals experiencing other types of dissociative psychological conditions, such as schizophrenia.

Introduction
Chances are good that you or someone you know has experienced a traumatic event at least once in your lifetime. Many individuals who experience trauma will develop a psychological condition known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Evidence indicates that communication plays a critical role in helping individuals recover from PTSD. Due to emotional sensitivities, traumatized individuals will often (unwittingly) choose metaphors in place of literal language to describe their traumatic experiences. We can help individuals recover from traumatic events by learning to communicate with them using metaphorical language. ...

The Role of Metaphor
What is metaphor? In simplest terms, a metaphor is a form of expression in which one thing is likened to something else with similar properties. A metaphor is one of many kinds of trope, which is a “rhetorical figure of speech that consists of a play on words, i.e. using a word in a way other than what is considered its literal or normal form” (Wikipedia, 2006). “Metaphors are common in language because they are so useful,” says Burns (2004). “Every new experience is at first understood in terms of what we already know. Metaphors can convey so much with few words, yet often are evocative and easily remembered” (Burns, 2004).

For example, in the famous play “Romeo & Juliet” by William Shakespeare, Romeo exclaims that “Juliet is the sun!” In so doing, Romeo is using a metaphor in order to liken the brightness, warmth and power of the sun to how he feels about Juliet. As the audience, we understand intuitively from this expression that Romeo does not mean to say that Juliet is literally the sun. ...

Hallucinations and Delusions as Metaphor
While hallucinations and/or delusions may in some cases be an indicator of PTSD, they may in other cases be an indicator of schizophrenia or some form of psychosis. Regardless of which psychological condition is triggering the hallucinations, the same principle of recovery through communication applies. In his book, Phenomenology & Lacan on Schizophrenia, After the Decade of the Brain, Alphonse De Waelhens asserts that “hallucinations cannot simply be explained as nothing more than false perceptions” (Johnston, 2002). De Waelhens felt that hallucinations represented unconscious and spontaneous attempts at recovery from psychological pain by the individual who experienced them. Amendiola (1998) supports this idea when she states that individuals “are usually attempting to problem-solve, even in a dissociative date”. ...

The Ethics of Communicating via Metaphor
If a person says that he is a fish, it could mean many different things. It could mean that he is hallucinating. It could mean that he is delusional. It could mean that he is simply speaking poetically. Or, it could mean that he is attempting to express the nature of some trauma that he has suffered. There is a certain old-fashioned school of thought which dictates that any person expressing “false” perceptions should be “corrected” and made aware that their perception differs from the norm (Sidis, 1914). The reality is that it may be more helpful to him to attempt to understand what he is trying to communicate than it will be to insist that he is wrong.

This does not mean that one is being dishonest by electing to communicate with an individual using his choice of metaphor. It does not mean that others have to agree that they perceive him to be a fish. It only means that they are trying to understand why he perceives himself that way. Asking questions such as “What kind of fish?” will reveal more about his train of thought and thus serve to perpetuate communication along with healing.

Source: The Role of Metaphor in Recovery From Trauma

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