PROSPECTS OF THE USAGE OF ARCHITECTURAL AND LANDSCAPE METAPHORS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELING
PROSPECTS OF THE USAGE OF ARCHITECTURAL AND LANDSCAPE METAPHORS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELING
Valeria Kopytova
master’s degree student, University of Tyumen,
Russia, Tyumen
Narkiza Moroz
candidate of philological sciences, associate Professor, University of Tyumen,
Russia, Tyumen
The purpose of the article is to review the practice of using architectural and landscape metaphors in psychological counseling, as well as to formulate the problem of analysis and interpretation of such metaphors in practice.
Common interaction with other people and space is inherently metaphorical, hence a metaphor is represented not only in speech but also in our reasoning and functioning [5, p. 50].
A. P. Chudinov distinguishes four broad types of metaphors: anthropomorphic, artifactual, sociomorphic, and biomorphic, which can be correlated with areas of human life [2, p. 136-137]. Architectural and landscape metaphors are part of sociomorphic metaphors. Those can be defined as the relocation of the meaning from architectural or landscape objects to another object or phenomenon based on common attributes, which can consist of visual and emotional resemblance. Moreover, it is the specification of definition of metaphor. There are some examples of that kind of metaphors: «to go downhill», «to go with a flow», «hitting his head against a brick wall», «burning bridges».
We can observe patterns of such metaphors not only in everyday life but also in the political discourse: «We will drain the swamp in Washington D.C» (Speech of Donald Trump, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, October 22, 2016). In the same speech Donald Trump says: «...wave of globalization has wiped out our middle class». Similar to the first case, the metaphor is a tool of expression used to highlight the importance of the event.
Therapeutic metaphors are those which are used to access internal structures of the human mind. For instance, a client may say «I go with a flow» which means that a person is not planning and controlling one’s actions but accepting the «fate». A specialist who noticed that metaphor is able to use it to extend the story and determine what the client was doing during «going with a flow», or, on the contrary, resisting the flow; how a client perceives that reality from the third point-of-view and how one’s models of behavior can be applied to the problem.
Architectural and landscape metaphors have extensive prospects in the field of psychological counselling whereby they focus on the key elements of the subject’s mind. Thus, architecture is a repository of «I»: personal (my home), social «We or They» (place of interaction with society), other «I or They» (stranger’s house). Buildings have a purpose (for its residents), and appearance (presentation for others). This metaphor is suitable for counselling work with a subject (resident), and more specifically with one’s identity (presentation). The landscape is potentially available life conditions, needed to be reached by contributing into overcoming the pathway. Those can be obstructions on the path (a river without a bridge), but also can support the progress (a river as a waterway). This metaphor can work for counseling regarding the subject’s functioning, with one’s process of self-identification (the ways of the movement and effort towards it).
Metaphors are already successfully used in the psychological counseling area. For instance, narrative approach uses metaphor of a story. A variety of metaphors are used in techniques using metaphorical associative cards, metaphorical drawings (I as a tree/character), metaphor in psychodrama etc.
S. V. Krainykov and Y. V. Gorynova point out that in psychological counseling, the client's metaphors play the role of definition and evaluation, and the role of counselor is cognition. It is important to identify positive/negative response while perceiving metaphors [4, p. 171]. However, specialists do not discuss types of metaphors and do not specify what personal and mental processes metaphors work with. Implementation and interpretation of metaphors are still intuitive processes on the part of counseling psychologists.
In the scientific psychological community metaphors are often considered as a method of humanistic, cognitive-behavioral, and narrative psychology. For instance, Gerard Lawson highlights a metaphor as a method of humanistic therapy. According to Lawson, Pathway of a character was adapted as a base for human development in psychological counseling. Specifically, through participation in fantasies we can engage real capabilities of a client and achieve integration of experience and identity in counseling [6, p. 136].
The supporters of narrative psychology also distinguish using of a pathway metaphor. S. Fullagar and W. O’Brien say: «Recovery from depression is described by clients as a journey to a sense of life» [3, p. 1065]. We can also mention a metaphor «I as space» which can be described from the point of architectural and landscape metaphor as it was described in the research by C. Bates on self-identity of «pro-ana» supporters [1, p. 198].
Furthermore, research of both architecture and psychology, (For example K. Roessler) describe emotional responses caused by architectural environment. They confirm an impact of environment on human life and prospects of its implementing in the psychological counseling. The article by K. Roessler covers the ways in which individuals are affected by the architecture. It demonstrates departing from an early source on the psychology of architecture and taking three architectural examples as illustrations: a public place in Berlin, a health environment in Sweden, and a fitness center in Denmark. Each of these architectural examples creates what might be called its own psychological emotions, and these are analyzed and discussed using a psychodynamic and existential attempt to understand the interrelationship between individuals and spatial reality [7, p. 84-86].
However, that research defines metaphors generically, without distinguishing particular types and without interpretation of the meanings of the metaphors. Nevertheless, the aforementioned research indirectly proves prospects of architectural and landscape metaphors implementing in the psychological counseling.
Thus, we can confirm high psych technique and rhetorical potential of architectural and landscape metaphors, applicable for identification and further work with it. Although, identification of the idea and the pathway can be a problem for counseling psychologists. It is important that the analysis of the metaphors used by the client during the consultation will not only present the problem in a more figurative expression but will also help in further work with these images.
The prospective of our study is to determine the ways of lessening of the constraints with identifying and the interpretation of the client’s architectural and landscape metaphors, and its implementing, basing on the mental and personal processes caused by them. In this regard, it is important to start working on the direction of the operationalization of the metaphor work practice and creating a technology on its basis. This technology can be used even by junior specialists, it will help to identify, analyze, and implement metaphors in the client’s speaking. Moreover, it can provide specialists with ideas regarding to the usage of architectural and landscape metaphors as a therapeutical method of counseling, due to its indicatively and expressiveness.
At the moment, the research is not finished yet, the work is on the stage of research analysis, the empirical results are expected in one year.
References:
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