Nature of Heart

 Metaphor or Simile?

A large part of self-understanding is the search for appropriate personal metaphors that make sense of our lives. It's easy to confuse metaphors with similes. A metaphor is a figure of speech that allows us to understand one element of experience in terms of another. If you find yourself saying that one thing is like another, that's a simile.

Examples

For example, a computer "mouse," unless you've got a live rodent on the loose, is a metaphor. The word stands for something other than what it is. A "smile like sunshine" is a simlie (one letter difference between smile and simile). It compares or likens one thing to another.

Imagine talking about your life in terms of a garden. Someone asks you a question you don't want to answer: "Sorry, I've planted that in my private garden." You're talking about a difficult challenge in your life: "It's a tough row to hoe." Things are looking good: "Everything's coming up roses." (Hmm. What if you're allergic to roses?)

Notice the difference between these two:

• She's a social butterfly.
• She's like a butterfly, always flitting from one social event to another.

The image a metaphor evokes usually conveys more meaning with fewer words than a simile.

Metaphor or Analogy?

Metaphors are driven by intution, involve images, and provide lots of room for free association. Analogies are more structural/functional and are carried out through rational thinking. Analogies reduce ambiguity by relating the commoness of two different things and bridge the gap between image and logic (Nonaka, 1994). For example, if we use a chart to compare the characteristics of dialogue with those of discussion or debate, we would be using analogy. 

Why Metaphors Matter

Metaphors matter because they set the framework for our thinking, thus our lives. If you are vying with someone for a job, notice the difference when you think of that competition as  "war" versus thinking of it as an opportunity to "display your colors" (a thought taken from the world of birding). A metaphor relates concepts that are far apart in an individual’s memory. In this way it plays an important role in associating abstract, imaginary concepts.

Cultural Metaphors

Our cultural metaphors, greatly influenced by business, change over time. In his book, Invisible Powers—The Language of Business, John Clancy reviewed a sample of business writings—autobiographies, speeches, and published interviews—involving the people (primary actors) who founded and/or led business enterprises during the time period 1770-1989.




The chart, above, illustrates the way business leaders were thinking about their purpose and performance during the years Clancy researched. He found six metaphors were most commonly used among the “actors” he chose to analyze. (Totals exceed 100% because actors used more than one metaphor). Where a specific part of the chart is blank, there was no mention of that metaphor during that time frame. For example, no mention of the “Journey” metaphor was found between 1770-1905.

Points to ponder . . .

• What do you think our cultural metaphors have been since 1989?
• Is there research that sheds a more current light?
• What are your own personal metaphors and where have they come from?

Invitation: We'd like to hear from you. Feel free to offer your comments. Also, check out the Nature of Heart blog.

References

Clancy, John J. Invisible Powers: The Language of Business (1989). Lexington Books: Lexington, MA.

Nonaka, Ikujiro. “A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation,” Organization Science, 1994, Vol. 5, No.1, (14-37).

 
  Unexpected Results
   Cindy Mueller