Recent debate has increasingly focused on the prominence of metaphor and rhetoric in psychological discourse. Underpinning this research is the view that psychology offers a unique insight into the creation of persuasive texts and that such a discipline needs to become itself an object of inquiry.
In developing this view, Psychology as Metaphor scrutinizes a wide range of traditional psychological theory including neuropsychology and memory, childhood development, the IQ debate, accounts of emotion and descriptions of the mind to show how rhetorical strategies and the deployment of metaphor are central to the work of creating a convincing theoretical account.
This innovative book explores the distinction between philosophy and rhetoric and offers an interdisciplinary analysis of theories of metaphor and language while pointing to future directions for research in the study of scientific rhetoric. Its theoretical breadth is matched by its wide-ranging treatment of key thinkers from Darwin, James and Freud, through Watson, Lashley, Piaget, Vygotsky, Skinner and Burt to recent texts from writers in contemporary psychology such as Kamin, Eysenck, Rumelhart and Shallice.
Original and lucidly argued, this book will be essential reading for psychologists, historians and sociologists of science, philosophers of the social sciences and anyone with an interest in how the study of rhetoric can shed light on the creation of persuasive psychological theory.
