Towards a cultural psychology of metaphor: A holistic-development study of metaphor use in an institutional context

Abstract

This article asks the question how do we interpret the role of metaphors in human life, from the perspective of cultural psychology. Taking inspiration from two articles by Carlos Cornejo, which outline a holistical-developmental theory of metaphor in contrast to the dominant cognitive-linguistic paradigm, we provide a case study of metaphor use in relation to organisation change. The case is part of a larger study of structural changes enforced within the Danish religious organisation, Indre Mission. Case extracts from two different interviews with the same employee, in which the same metaphor is used with different meaning, are analysed in relation to context and development (on both micro- and ontogenetic levels). This analysis leads to the conclusion that a metaphor is understood through the particular complex situation in which it is used. In other words, rather than a conceptual interaction, this article proposes seeing metaphor use as a situated act of imagination in which the person experiences certain properties of the metaphor.