McCurry, S., & Hayes, S. C. (1992). Clinical and experimental perspectives on metaphorical talk. Clinical Psychology Review, 12, 763-785.
Recent years have seen a proliferation in the numbers of books, articles, and workshops that discuss the relevance of metaphorical language to psychology. To a great extent, however, such proliferation represents the evolution of two distinct and uncoordinated literatures: namely, that of clinical or applied researchers, and that of experimental or basic (including psycholinguistic) researchers. The present article seeks to examine some areas of overlap between the two. It does so by comparing various definitions of metaphor and then examining the two literatures for how metaphorical talk "works" in the areas of memorability, comprehensibility, and aptness. Research implications of both literatures are proposed, and some of the difficulties associated with attempting such a comparison are discussed.