The Role of Metaphor in Recovery from Trauma
Susan Lien Whigham
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 Effects of Trauma on the Human Psyche
Trauma is the word we use to describe the emotional distress which
results from experiencing extreme personal injury or witnessing it. The
PTSD Alliance (no date) estimates that 70% of adult Americans have
experienced at least one traumatic event, and of these, 20% will develop
PTSD. The PTSD Alliance goes on to estimate that 13 million
Americans have PTSD at any given time. According to the National
Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (NCPTSD), PTSD “can occur
following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such
as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious
accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape” (2006).
It may take days, weeks, months or years for an individual to develop
symptoms of PTSD following the traumatic event (NCPTSD, 2006). PTSD
manifests itself by means of a variety of symptoms, including panic
attacks, nightmares, insomnia, flashbacks, hallucinations,
hypervigilance, emotional numbing, avoidance and more (Jaffe &
Segal, 2005). Brant (2005) makes note of the particular difficulty that
many war veterans have in acknowledging their PTSD symptoms due to the
stigmas attached to mental health problems and their own fears of
appearing weak.
Nonetheless, communication is an important key to recovery. Butler
(1997) reports that “Research suggests that trauma survivors can head
off long-lasting symptoms by letting friends know what they're going
through and by confronting traumatic memories early on”. “Talk to a lot
of other people," says Edna Foa, a cognitive-behavioral psychologist
and PTSD expert (Butler, 1997). Another trauma researcher, Rachel
Yehuda, also stresses the importance of communicating to others and not
withdrawing. She goes on to say that "The really devastating effect of
trauma comes about when you damage your ability to relate to your social
support system" (Butler, 1997).
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. Another example of a metaphorical
expression can be found in the movie “Serenity”. When Serenity’s
spaceship pilot Hoban Washburne says, “I am a leaf on the wind”, he is
likening his own remarkable piloting abilities to the agile movement of a
leaf on the wind. Again, it does not need to be explained to the
audience that he does not believe he is an actual leaf.
It’s common for individuals who suffer from PTSD to use metaphors to
express the experiences of traumatic events. According to Amendiola
(1998), “Metaphor provides an altered frame of reference that allows the
client to entertain novel experience without physiological hyperarousal
and attending negative affect.” In layman’s terms, this means that
speaking in metaphor allows a traumatized individual to talk about what
happened without being re-traumatized by the memory of the event.
Winslow (2004) describes traumatic memory as creating a separate world
which is very different from and initially irreconcilable with the
ordinary world that most people know. “But,” she says, “the situation
is more complicated still; changes in physical and psychological states
shift the experiencer into an altered state of consciousness
characterized by heightened imaging and interference with reasoning”
(Winslow, 2004). Metaphor helps to create a bridge between the
“ordinary” world and the trauma world.
As one might imagine, some difficulty may arise when it’s not properly
understood that an individual is speaking metaphorically. Due to the
highly sensitive nature of the subject matter, a traumatized individual
who is using metaphors is not likely to be able to acknowledge that this
is what he or she is doing. For example, imagine that a trauma victim
expresses to a loved one that “Lois Lane” was in distress but that
“Superman” didn’t come to save her. For the listener to insist on
immediately translating the metaphors into what they may represent will
likely provoke further emotional upset for the narrator, considering
that the reason metaphors were chosen to begin with was that they were
less emotionally threatening terms of expression. Furthermore, to
automatically write off what the individual is trying to express as
being false, or delusional, is counter-productive to the individual’s
recovery process because it acts as an obstacle to communication.
Lawley & Tompkins (2001) point out that “Because metaphors describe
one experience in terms of another, they specify and constrain our ways
of thinking about the original experience. This influences the meaning
and importance we attach to the original experience, the way it fits
with other experiences, and the actions we take as a result”. In other
words, communicating with a traumatized individual using the specific
metaphors chosen by that individual can influence the future actions
taken by that individual, and has the potential to empower the
individual to positive action.
The question then arises of how to respond to a traumatized individual
who is speaking metaphorically. David Grove, a renowned psychotherapist
and PTSD expert from New Zealand, developed a special methodology which
would allow therapists to communicate comfortably with their clients
while preserving the metaphors chosen by their clients to represent
traumatic events (Lawley & Tompkins, 2001). He calls this
methodology “Clean Language”, and it is also known as “Grovian Metaphor
Therapy”. The way “Clean Language” works, basically, is that the
therapist responds to the metaphor with questions that continue to
respect the client’s mode of expression. For example, if the client
expresses that she is a bird who is trapped inside a hole, then the
therapist may respond by asking questions about the nature of the bird
(by saying, for instance, “And what kind of bird is it?”), or about the
nature of the hole (“And what kind of hole is it?”), or about what
happens next (“And then what happens?”). Note that when using “Clean
Language”, each response is prefaced with the conjunction “And”. The
purpose of these questions and this particular phrasing is simply to
perpetuate communication. To insist that the client is not a bird or
that there is no hole would prove to be counter-productive to the
client’s recovery process as it would ultimately act as an obstacle to
communication and thereby impede recovery.
Even though many therapists recognize and appreciate the important role
that metaphor plays in trauma therapy, metaphors along with
opportunities to discuss them are still often missed during the recovery
process. Why? Burns (2004) gives three main reasons. One is that
metaphors are so common in our every-day language. “We are so used to
metaphorical language that we are like fish in an ocean of metaphors,”
he says (Burns, 2004). As a result, metaphorical language may pass by
unnoticed. Secondly, it may happen that the therapist assumes a
universal interpretation of a metaphor and fails to recognize the more
subjective meaning intended by the client. Thirdly, the therapist may
be reluctant to use metaphorical language for fear of being
misunderstood.
In spite of these obstacles, the effort to understand metaphorical
language remains a valuable opportunity to open up lines of
communication and help to build the social support which is so critical
to the trauma victim’s recovery process. In reference to written trauma
narratives, Winslow writes:
Shouldn’t
we read the texts on – and in – their own terms [...] to learn what
their authors, who know intimately the extremes of the human condition,
have to say? [...] If we don’t try, I think our failure renders the
writer faceless as an experiencer of trauma... (2001)
Although Winslow is speaking of being an audience to written trauma
narratives, her sentiment still holds true for spoken narratives as
well. As one might imagine, a little validation goes a long way.
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”. Bruce Fink, a scientist
who continued research along the lines of De Waelhens’ school of
thought, reiterated the importance of using communication via metaphor
to establish what he calls a “stable delusional system” which would
allow the individual experiencing hallucinations to be able to interface
with society’s objective reality in spite of varying perceptions
(Johnston, 2002).
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.
Conclusion
Trauma makes a tremendous impact on the human psyche, the effects of
which may last for years. Even though sufferers of PTSD may benefit
from the assistance of a professional psychotherapist, we as friends and
loved ones can also make a powerful difference in an individual’s
recovery process by simply listening and making an effort to understand
what the individual is trying to express. The fact that trauma victims
often use metaphorical language means that sometimes we have to put in a
little more effort in order to interpret what is being communicated.
This effort goes a long way.
References
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