Metaphor Analysis

The chapter starts from a close connection between the culturally predetermined everyday language and the reflection on the psychic in and outside of psychology in the form of common metaphorical patterns. The cognitive metaphor theory by Lakoff and Johnson has developed this link, and the metaphor analysis attempts to reconstruct metaphorical thought patterns in a systematic form as qualitative research. Initially, the chapter outlines the basic assumptions of Lakoff and Johnson, then the approach of a qualitative metaphor analysis. The potential of the approach is developed using two studies on metaphors of depression.