Metaphorical conceptualization of some notions in depressive disorders: Is PLEASURE an insipid milky jelly?

• Published in: Psychology of language and communication 2008-01, Vol.12 (1), p.85-102
• Main Author: Bartczak, Marlena
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: cognitive representation; depression; metaphorical processing; metaphors
• ISSN: 1234-2238; 2083-8506
• DOI: 10.2478/v10057-008-0005-y

The study concerned the process of metaphor creation in a group of depressive and of non-depressive people. It was assumed that due to some deficits in working memory and inhibition processes, depressive people would have difficulties with metaphorical processing and would produce fewer metaphors than do healthy individuals. It was also presumed that subjects with depression as compared to non-depressive individuals would produce more metaphors for negative notions, and generally would create more negative metaphors, independently of the semantics and valence of a notion. The results obtained in this study aren't univocal. However, it seems that there exists a tendency to produce a smaller number of metaphors in depressive people (especially concerning the notion of FUTURE), which could indicate the existence of some difficulties in metaphorical processing connected with depression. Furthermore, depressive subjects produced more negative metaphors for some notions but not for all of them. This points to the need of attention to semantics in studies on the mechanisms of metaphorical processing in a group of depressive people.