[atisketatasket]

Does your therapist employ metaphors, either for you or for the therapeutic process? Do you find them helpful? Or apt? Or clueless?

I've been compared to an animal (an armadillo), which I guess might fit but doesn't offer a great deal of insight (how does one dis-armadillo oneself?). But the metaphor I really objected to was therapy as the hero's journey - Joseph Campbell, etc. I could buy the client as the hero, but then the therapist has to be the divine guide for the hero...and I did not like the implications of that at all.

[unaluna]

No isnt the t like the sidekick in Don Quixote?

Eta - i have always been the humorous sidekick to the handsome leading man or lady. Time for ghat to end. Like Pancho and Cisco, the actor playing Pancho was an actual journalist, not just a clown. And not just a pretty face (one of my favorite lines - that im not just a pretty face. Doesnt get many arguments!) -

[atisketatasket]

Originally Posted by unaluna

No isnt the t like the sidekick in Don Quixote?

Eta -

Sancho Panza?

Next you'll be saying the therapist is like the Fool in King Lear.

[Argonautomobile]

Wow. Your very own personal Virgil at 100 bucks an hour? Lucky you!

Haha. T uses metaphor all the time. Mostly it's ham-fisted, but I don't mind. I love figurative language and make quite a few bad comparisons myself (most recent: mind as refrigerator). I think there's just as much (more?) to be learned from an ill-fitting metaphor as from a perfect one. I appreciate that T is willing to speak my language in this regard.

[atisketatasket]

Originally Posted by Argonautomobile

Wow. Your very own personal Virgil at 100 bucks an hour? Lucky you!

Haha. T uses metaphor all the time. Mostly it's ham-fisted, but I don't mind. I love figurative language and make quite a few bad comparisons myself (most recent: mind as refrigerator). I think there's just as much (more?) to be learned from an ill-fitting metaphor as from a perfect one. I appreciate that T is willing to speak my language in this regard.

Way more than $100.

Also, I think she saw herself more as Athena.

[Argonautomobile]

Originally Posted by atisketatasket

(how does one dis-armadillo oneself?)..

...Come out of your shell?

hahaha

[Argonautomobile]

But seriously....I have been known to react badly to metaphors of the insincere platitude variety, and truly hate the type of language you find on motivational posters. Having a T who talked like that would not fly with me. Luckily, the first time I made fun of/challenged T's metaphor he was cool about it--didn't get offended or anything. I appreciate when people can laugh at themselves.

[Out There]

I use metaphors more than he does - I could see myself like a banjo but I don't know if he would.....

My T uses chocolate cake metaphors, there is virtually nothing that chocolate cake cannot cover. Don't ask to repeat them I can never remmber them.

[unaluna]

My t's brother, also a t, saw life as a metaphor for baseball (yes i said that right) so we do a lot of sports metaphors. I'll have to read my shakespeare before i can answer your other question. My education is sorely lacking in the basics.

Also bacon vs tofu comparisons per a new yorker magazine cartoon.

[atisketatasket]

Originally Posted by unaluna

My t's brother, also a t, saw life as a metaphor for baseball (yes i said that right) so we do a lot of sports metaphors. I'll have to read my shakespeare before i can answer your other question. My education is sorely lacking in the basics.

Says the woman who can quote lines from Tennessee Williams at the drop of a hat!

Lear is mad. His Fool is a sane everyman, unable to save his master. It's probably a dual role with Cordelia, unable to save her mad father. On second thoughts, maybe not such a great metaphor...

[unaluna]

Says the woman who confused Tennessee Williams and Tennessee Ernie Ford and for some reason, Jimmie Dean.

[velcro003]

I like using metaphors, it helps me explain myself better.

[JustShakey]

Originally Posted by unaluna

Says the woman who confused Tennessee Williams and Tennessee Ernie Ford and for some reason, Jimmie Dean.

Mmmm, sausage biscuits...

[JustShakey]

I like metaphors too. I particularly like messing with T by deliberately taking them a different way from what he intends and then arguing about it I'm a brat who loves to argue for the pure hell of it

[AllHeart]

My t uses metaphors all the time. Sometimes they are actually useful and relevant but if I'm in a mood, I find most of them to be condescending.

[Pennster]

This is such an interesting phenomenon. I don't think my therapist uses metaphors at all, at least not with me.

Mine does, because I occasionally use metaphor.

[growlycat]

Originally Posted by unaluna

No isnt the t like the sidekick in Don Quixote?

Eta - i have always been the humorous sidekick to the handsome leading man or lady. Time for ghat to end. Like Pancho and Cisco, the actor playing Pancho was an actual journalist, not just a clown. And not just a pretty face (one of my favorite lines - that im not just a pretty face. Doesnt get many arguments!) -

I'm more like donkey in Shrek

[growlycat]

Originally Posted by unaluna

My t's brother, also a t, saw life as a metaphor for baseball (yes i said that right) so we do a lot of sports metaphors. I'll have to read my shakespeare before i can answer your other question. My education is sorely lacking in the basics.

Also bacon vs tofu comparisons per a new yorker magazine cartoon.

LOL , ah, yes sports metaphors. Sparky uses many of them because everyone knows how sports really speak big truths to artsy types. geesh

[stopdog]

Not really. I doubt the first one understands metaphor herself. I use them sometimes, but the woman fails to appreciate them. The second one and I employ allusion to better purpose.

I never could abide Joseph Campbell. I am no hero and the therapist is no sidekick. Black knight to my Arthur more like.

Originally Posted by stopdog

Not really. I doubt the first one understands metaphor herself. I use them sometimes, but the woman fails to appreciate them. The second one and I employ allusion to better purpose.

I never could abide Joseph Campbell. I am no hero and the therapist is no sidekick. Black knight to my Arthur more like.

Now I have images of SD's T saying "It's only a fleshwound" at an SD barb.

[growlycat]

I was thinking…

RUN AWAAAAYYYYY!!

[stopdog]

Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York.

[stopdog]

Originally Posted by growlycat

I was thinking…

RUN AWAAAAYYYYY!!

Would it help to confuse it if we run away more?