Metaphors, Trauma and Symptoms

5 An image schematic analysis of metaphors in describing ASD symptoms

5.1 Chapter introduction

By contextualizing metaphor use into the clinical scenario of trauma evaluation, Chapter 4 examined the correlations between trauma victims’ metaphor usage patterns and severities of psychopathological disturbances. While the significant results reflect different trauma populations’ overall tendencies in metaphor use, they do not reflect how trauma victims in different clinical conditions perceive and conceptualize their psychopathological experiences. This chapter zooms in on a more specialized clinical context and probes into trauma victims’ metaphorical conceptualizations of clinically present symptoms.³³ The focus is shifted from individual-level ...